Latest News and Application Notes

Polish Your Worries Away

February 28, 2024

In 1973, LECO Corporation introduced the industry’s first line of complete solutions for metallographic analysis. All of these instruments typically require some kind of consumable, but it’s up to the customer to decide which ones they would like to use. LECO offers a wide selection of consumables - for example, we offer fourteen different types of polishing cloths for polishing samples. Trying to select the right ones can leave your head spinning as much as your grinder/polisher. When you begin to feel like you’re drowning in a sea of choices, you can breathe easy knowing our experts will be there to help you make the right selections based on your goals. Each customer has different wants and needs, so there is no single “correct” answer as to which consumables are the best. However, we aim to focus on a few options that work for the most applications. Sticking with the polishing cloth example, we primarily use three polishing cloths in our labs – Gold Technotron, Red Felt, and Imperial.

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Additive Manufacturing from Start to Finish

July 14, 2023

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.

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Selecting the Right Hardness Test Block

June 23, 2023

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.

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Online Demonstrations: Explore LECO Simulators

June 2, 2023

Any new technology comes with a learning curve. Whether it's finding the locations of buttons on a new remote or re-establishing your settings on a new phone, a change in equipment often means time spent learning how to use the new equipment instead of actually using the new equipment. This process is extended when there are multiple users. Ease of use becomes an important factor in a purchasing decision, and often, it may seem easiest to stick with a familiar brand just because it's already known. But familiarity doesn't mean most efficient, or even easiest. When every manufacturer promises "simple" and "user-friendly" design, how can you know you have the best solution?

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Spring has Sprung: Fatigue Fracture Surface Evaluation by Optical Microscopy

April 21, 2023

Most fasteners are essentially springs, and when these fasteners fail it is usually abrupt, "out of nowhere," and caused by fatigue. Fatigue failure is estimated to account for 80-90% of all fastener breaks. However, by its very definition, fatigue damage happens over time, due to repeated loading that stresses an already weakened location. ASTM E1823-10a, Terminology Relating to Fatigue and Fracture Testing, defines fatigue as: "The process of progressive localized permanent structural change occurring in a material subjected to conditions that produce fluctuating stresses and strains at some point or points and that may culminate in cracks or complete fracture after a sufficient number of fluctuations." Preventing fatigue failure is a critical part of engineering designs.

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Sports Development Starts in the Lab

March 31, 2023

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.

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The Hard Truth of Conversions: ASTM E140

March 10, 2023

The Rockwell hardness test is one of the fastest and most convenient hardness testing methods used around the world. With the lack of sample prep and optical requirements, it is the easiest to work into automated production lines, and the common Rockwell hardness scale C (HRC) is an easy way to refer to the hardness of metals that even the lay person can understand. However, it is not the only hardness testing method. Knoop (HK) and Vickers (HV) hardness testing methods can also find the hardness of a material, but the values are not interchangeable. To compare material hardness, the values must be in the same hardness scale.

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Thanksgiving Dinner is so Metal: Science Keeps You Safe

November 23, 2022

Here in America, millions of families will be sitting down to a hearty Thanksgiving meal on November 24. While many minds are caught up with the necessary preparations for this dinner, few will be thinking of the metallurgical and elemental analysis preparation that went into crafting the very materials used to create Thanksgiving dinner. From the carving knife to the oven that roasted the turkey and most of the pots and pans in-between, chances are good that LECO has touched at least part of the preparations for your dinner.

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How to Improve Your Metallographic Mounts

September 2, 2022

Bakelite, Lucite, epoxy, or acrylic? Hot or cold? Compression or castable? With all of the options available for mounting materials, it can be difficult to know which one is the best option for your sample or why it even matters. However, your choice of mounting material is important, and it can affect the final quality of your prepared sample.

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Human vs Machines: Hardness Testing with the AMH55

June 10, 2022

Does automated hardness testing software really provide that much of an advantage over manual methods? LECO's Cornerstone-based AMH55 system takes the human variance out of the process, making it fast, precise, and accurate, but just how much variance is actually involved? LECO decided to put it to the test, pitting seven humans of varying metallographic experience against the AMH55.

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