One of the fundamental objectives of microstructural examination of manufactured materials is to gain a more complete understanding of the relationships between the manufacturing processes, the microstructure and texture of the material, and the product's performance. This objective, however, can only be achieved if the examination specimens are repeatably produced and are free of thermal, mechanical and chemical alterations, as well as artifacts, damage, or defects resulting from the specimen preparation process. It is also imperative that surface finish of the specimen be appropriate for the microscopical techniques to be used. The preparation process must provide specimens in a timely fashion, generally within a few tens of minutes or at most a few hours for typical industrial/manufacturing situations. Although designed for much harder more rigid materials, the general grinding and polishing techniques used in petrographic and metallographic specimen preparation can also be used for plastics and polymers. ASTM Committee E-4 on Metallography has a task group (TG-E04.01.05) which is preparing a standard guide for the preparation of polymeric specimens based on the ASTM E3-95 standard.
Concepts and tools used to manage industrial manufacturing processes optimization
