Latest News and Application Notes

For much of human history, parts manufacturing was subtractive. The unformed material would have parts cut away to achieve the desired results. However, in the 1970s, a new manufacturing revolution was beginning. Computer-aided designs (CAD) was able to guide lasers pointed at liquid plastic, fusing it into solid plastic. Ultrafine layers were added to the product, creating, for the first time, additive manufacturing.

When you think of a sports competition, you may picture several athletes at the tops of their game duking it out for supremacy, whether on a pitch, a track, a course, a pool, or wherever else their sport takes them. But sport competitions can transcend humans challenging each other. The competition in the sports equipment industry is just as fierce as that between players.

In the race between the tortoise and the hare, which style of instrument analysis is best for your lab? Slow and steady or fast and loose? Unlike the fable, however, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to elemental analysis, and that is precisely why LECO's instruments do not employ one-size-fits-all methods.

Proper maintenance is more than just an annual checkup. Whether it's for your body or your instrument, a comprehensive support plan will bring you peace of mind about your health. That's why LECO has launched comprehensive maintenance plans for most* of our Cornerstone instruments in the United States.

In 2013, as the eastern span replacement of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was drawing to a close, 277 vertical steel rods to improve the seismic stability of the replacement were tested under tension using three-inch-diameter bolts. Within two weeks, 32 of the steel rods had snapped. 277 of these rods were used in the $6.5 billion construction project, but only 96 were accessible. Metal testing suggested hydrogen embrittlement during the manufacturing of the rods may have caused the failures. Thankfully, this was able to be corrected before the bridge opened, but it was a major setback in the construction.

In 2011, LECO's Cornerstone® brand software took the analytical world by storm. Intuitive screens. Adjustable charts. Diagnostics built into the software, with real-time monitoring and animated system diagrams. Designed by scientists, for scientists, Cornerstone blended industry-leading technology with practical functionality. Eleven years later, it's time for a facelift.

Many LECO analytical instrument rely on consumables like pure chemical and high purity gases to function. When supply chain issues affect these consumables, laboratory operations can quickly increase in cost or in worst case scenarios can even be shut down. One current issue that is plaguing the scientific community is the supply of helium.

Once more expensive than gold, aluminum has not lost its value over the years, only its price tag. Thanks to revolutionary methods of production largely developed in the late 1800s, the price of aluminum dropped from $34 an ounce in 1852 ($1,276 in 2022 dollars) to just $0.09 an ounce today. As a low-density, high-strength, corrosion-resistant metal, aluminum's usefulness has led to incredible consumption in many industries from transportation to packaging.

LECO is heading back to the show floor!

Are you attending the Cast Expo in Columbus, Ohio, from April 23 to April 26? Stop by Booth #2016 to meet our instrument experts and get answers to your metallographic questions!

Heading to AIST in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from May 16 to May 19, instead? LECO will be at Booth #505!

Most iron products these days are improved with the addition of ferroalloys, or iron alloys containing high levels of other primary elements. Ferroalloys are everywhere from cast iron to stainless steel. These extra elements help strengthen the metal by adding their own characteristics: silicon is used to deoxidize steel, manganese mitigates harmful effects of sulfur, and chromium increases corrosion resistance, to name just a few. But adding to iron is not without risk; if unwanted elements are part of the ferroalloy, they can weaken the resulting products.