One sample, end to end. From the bench to the atlas.
A walkthrough of a single metallography sample passing through Materials Prep. Eight phases, one journal, every parameter and image filed where the next person can find them.
What happens to a sample, from receiving to filed.
Eight phases, in order. Each one writes to the same prep journal, so a sample that arrives in the morning is fully searchable by the afternoon, with every parameter, image, and decision in one place.
- 01 / PHASE
A sample arrives at the bench
Receiving captures the basics: ID, alloy or material family, hardness, mount type, project, and the analysis goal. Sample IDs follow your lab's existing scheme, not ours. The sample is now searchable, traceable, and ready for prep, before any abrasive has touched it.
- 02 / PHASE
The technician picks a recipe
From your lab's recipe book, organized by alloy, hardness, and mount type. Approved recipes are surfaced first; drafts and under-validation recipes are still discoverable and labeled for what they are. One tap applies the recipe to the sample and pre-fills the prep ladder.
- 03 / PHASE
Mount, grind, and polish are logged as they happen
Each step in the ladder records its parameters at the bench: abrasive, grit, time, force, RPM, lubricant. Notes and photos attach to the step they belong to, not a general comment field. If the sample is part of a batch running together, log it once on the batch and the entry fans out to every sample's journal.
- 04 / PHASE
Etching, with the etchants you actually use
Pick an etchant from the working catalog: composition, target alloys, exposure method, and safety notes are right there on the sample. Log the etch (etchant, method, time, observation) and the journal moves on. Etchants that proved useful for a given alloy stay surfaced for the next sample like it.
- 05 / PHASE
Imaging captures the result
Microscope vendor software (OmniMet, Stream, ZEN, LAS X) keeps doing what it does. Materials Prep is where the resulting micrographs land, attached to the sample, the prep step, and the etchant that produced them. Magnification, illumination mode, and feature notes are recorded with the image.
- 06 / PHASE
The atlas remembers the structure
Promote the best images to the lab's atlas, indexed by alloy, condition, and etchant. The next time someone asks 'what does Q&T 4140 look like at HRC 42 etched with nital,' the answer is a search away, not a folder dive on a shared drive.
- 07 / PHASE
Studies tie the work together
When a single sample is part of a larger job, a failure analysis, a qualification, an R&D investigation, group it into a study. Compare prep, hardness, and microstructure across the whole study side by side. Reports pull from the underlying journal entries, so they cite the same data the bench logged.
- 08 / PHASE
The recipe gets sharper
Every run through a recipe is a data point on whether the recipe works. Recipes move from draft to under-validation to approved as the lab logs successful runs. The atlas, the etchant catalog, and the recipe book all get a little richer with every sample. The next sample like this one will be faster.
The same eight phases, three different labs.
Materials Prep is built for internal-use metallography labs, not contract or service labs. The loop is the same; the surrounding context is what changes.
Failure analysis labs
A bracket fails in the field. The investigation spawns six samples cut from the failure: weld zones, parent metal, fracture face. Each gets its own prep journal; all six belong to one study; the report cites the journal entries directly.
University materials labs
Graduate student preps thirty samples for a thesis comparing heat-treated alloys. Recipes start as drafts authored by the student, get reviewed by the PI, and graduate to under-validation as runs accumulate. The atlas is the thesis figure pool.
In-house QA and metallurgical labs
QA pulls eight pucks from a forging lot for the routine grain-size check. They run as a single batch through the standard 4140 polish ladder. One step entry, eight sample journals, one report. Audit log records who ran what and when.