These are for describing the microstructure of ceramic materials; characterizing their morphology by defining the distribution, the shape and the size of the grains (or particles) and the pores. A real investigative tool,these may be run at any stage of the manufacturing process, as much for a raw material in powder form as for a part of a finished or semi-finished product to carry out intermediary tests.
They allow for:
- the uncovering of any potential inconsistencies
- defect analysis
- the running of a local basic chemical analysis
They are run by:
- a scanning microscope, SEM, coupled with an electron probe microanalyser, EPMA, to determine themicrostructure and local basic chemical analysis.
- a mercury intrusion porosimeter to determine the open porosity and the pore size distribution
- a X-ray diffractometer to characterize the crystalline structure (calculation and dosing of existingcrystalline phases, the size of nanometric crystallites, measuring crystal structure parameters…)
- A very high resolution digital microscope (3D observation and dimensional control)