Latest News and Application Notes

Hardness testing is one of the quickest and easiest ways to check product quality or process results, with very little sample prep needed and simple tests that can be taught in a matter of minutes (you can read more about metallographic neophytes learning the AMH55 in an earlier blog post!), but one critical step in the testing process is checking the calibration of the instrument. To verify the hardness test results are, in fact, accurate, the hardness tester must be proved to be accurate. Various standards for hardness testing have various frequencies for checking calibration, but all of them require it up front. Checking the calibration of a hardness tester is as simple as using a test block. This is a block with a certified hardness number at a certain force for a certain type of hardness test. Figuring out what those levels are, however, can get confusing.

Over the last thirty years, the Dumas combustion method for analyzing protein content in food has been gaining popularity against the classic Kjeldahl wet chemical digestion and titration method. The Dumas method has several advantages over the Kjeldahl method: it is much faster, with much lower operating costs, no real safety issues, and no toxic waste produced. However, there is a debate over which of the two main approaches to the Dumas method is better: a vertical or a horizontal combustion furnace.

It's the holiday season and gift-giving is running rampant. What do you get for the metallurgist who has everything?

Microstructural analysis consumables!