METALLOGRAPHIC CHEMICAL ETCHING

Chemically Etched Cross Section of Butt Weld.

Metallographic Chemical Etching is the process of using a reagent (a mixture of acids, bases, and/or other chemicals) to highlight or distinguish certain features of a material.  Etching can be performed on a large part having physical characteristics that can be seen with the naked eye, or on a smaller microscopic level that has to be examined with our optical or scanning electron microscope.   Chemical etchants can expose things like grain boundaries, compositional differences, and metallic phase differences along with things like carbides and inclusions.  Metallographic Chemical Etching is both an important technique and a helpful tool here at EPIMTG.

Chemically Etched Cast Iron Microstructure