Short Stories from the Lab: A fully automated 3D microstructure characterization system

Every polished and scanned surface represents one slice in a three-dimensional data block which may be as large as 500 × 500 × 500 µm³ measured in steps of 1 µm in every dimension of space. This process takes about 15 minutes from placing the sample into the polishing machine, till seeing first results of the scanning process. The MPIE scientists are able to analyse 40 slices per day and the whole system works 24 hours without pause. Over a weekend they may collect up to 30 million data points. Such huge amounts of data are needed to characterize grain boundaries three-dimensionally. The automated system enables the team of Dr. Stefan Zaefferer to focus on the interpretation of the data instead of spending time and effort on the polishing and microscopy process. He and his team at the MPIE built up this system, combining commercially available devices with devices made at the mechanical and electronic workshops of the institute. Now the scientists are able to analyse the morphology of grain boundaries, seeing for example, which grain boundaries corrode in stainless steel and understanding why this happens and how to prevent the corrosion.



© Shao-Pu Tsai & Stefan Zaefferer