The etchants you actually use, at the bench.
A working catalog of metallographic etchants with composition, target alloys, and safety notes, surfaced on the sample where the technician is logging the etch. Compatible with the PACE catalog of about 2,700 etchants through the optional Metallogic AI add-on.
An etchant reference where the etch happens.
An etchant binder on a shelf works until the binder is on the wrong shelf, or the page has changed since the lab decided to use a different concentration last quarter, or the technician new this month doesn't know which binder is the canonical one.
At the bench, not in a binder
Composition, target alloys, exposure method, and safety notes show up on the sample where the technician is logging the etch step. No lookup, no second tab, no walking to a shelf for a reagent binder.
Indexed by what matters
Search etchants by alloy or material family, by what the etch reveals (grain boundaries, phases, deformation), or by composition. Find Kroll's by typing 'titanium,' Keller's by typing 'aluminum.'
Composition, exposure, and safety in one place
Each etchant entry carries its full chemical composition, the recommended exposure method (immersion, swab, electrolytic), the typical exposure time, and the safety notes that matter when the technician is reaching for the bottle.
Your lab's tweaks, captured
When the senior technician modifies the standard nital concentration for a specific job, capture the variant. The base etchant stays canonical; the variant lives alongside it, scoped to your lab.
Etch results write back to the journal
Logging an etch step records the etchant, exposure, and observation. The combination of etchant + alloy + observation is the data that makes the next sample like this one faster.
Pairs with the PACE catalog through M.AI
If your organization adds the optional Metallogic AI add-on, M.AI can search the PACE catalog of about 2,700 etchants by material, alloy, scale, and method, and write the matching entry into your lab's working catalog.
Common questions about the etchant catalog.
- Does Materials Prep ship with a starter etchant catalog?
- The base catalog seeds the most common metallographic etchants (nital, Keller's, Kroll's, glyceregia, Murakami's, picral, and so on). Your lab adds variants and additional entries as the work needs them. The PACE catalog of about 2,700 entries is reachable through the optional Metallogic AI add-on.
- Can I add custom etchants?
- Yes. Lab admins and technicians can author etchants. Each entry has fields for name, composition, target alloys, exposure method, and safety notes. Custom etchants are scoped to your lab by default; you can widen the visibility scope to your organization if you need to share across labs.
- Are there safety warnings?
- Each etchant carries a safety notes field that the catalog surfaces inline when an etchant is selected on a sample. The notes are advisory and do not replace your lab's SDS process. Consult the SDS for any reagent before use.
- How does this work with the optional Metallogic AI?
- Mai can search the PACE catalog of about 2,700 etchants from inside any sample, looking up by material, alloy, scale, and reveal target. When it recommends an etchant, you can save it into your lab's working catalog with one click. The add-on is optional; the working catalog functions without it.
- Can I delete an etchant?
- Yes. Etchants are soft-deleted, recoverable, and audited. Etch steps that referenced the deleted etchant keep their reference; the audit log shows what happened.
Pairs with recipes, atlas (atlas search filters by etchant), and Metallogic AI for the full PACE catalog.