Sectioning
Everything that follows depends on a clean cut. The MEGA abrasive cutters handle high-throughput work on most metals and alloys, while the PICO precision wafering saws are built for delicate materials like electronics, ceramics, and composites where heat and deformation have to stay minimal. Match the blade to the material, keep the feed rate reasonable, and use coolant. Consumables include abrasive and diamond blades, cutting fluids with corrosion inhibitors, and the accessories you need to hold odd sample shapes.
Mounting
Mounting holds the sample at a workable size and protects fragile edges during grinding and polishing. Compression mounting on a TERAPRESS uses heat and pressure with thermosetting resins like phenolic, diallyl phthalate, or epoxy. It's fast and gives excellent edge retention. Castable mounting on the TERAVAC, TERACOMP, or TERAUV uses cold-cure resins applied under vacuum, pressure, or UV. Use it when your sample can't take the heat and pressure of compression, or when the shape doesn't fit a standard mold. Conductive resins are available for SEM work, and transparent resins let you see what's happening at the edge.
Grinding
Grinding removes the sectioning damage and gets you to a flat surface with a controlled scratch pattern. PENTA hand and belt grinders handle the rough initial work. From there, a typical sequence steps through SiC papers from P120 or P240 down through P800 or P1200, with each grit removing the scratches from the one before it. Diamond grinding discs work better than SiC on hard materials. Composite disks combine multiple grits in a single step, and lapping films take you to high flatness when you need it. The right starting grit depends on how rough your cut was and how hard the material is.
Polishing
Polishing takes out the grinding scratches with diamond compounds on cloth pads. NANO grinder-polishers are manual, FEMTO is semi-automatic with a programmable head, and ATTO gives you controlled material removal for thin layers and case-depth work. A typical sequence steps through 9, 6, 3, and 1 micrometer diamond. Pad choice matters more than people think: synthetic pads cut faster, silk and canvas hold flatness, and a magnetic platen makes pad changes quick. For routine QC this is often the final step. For higher-end work, it sets up final polishing.
Final Polishing
Final polishing removes the subsurface damage that earlier steps leave behind and produces a surface with no directional scratches. The GIGA vibratory polishers do this with a gentle horizontal motion. Load samples, set the time, walk away. Consumables are usually colloidal silica around 0.05 micrometer for oxide polishing or alumina for non-ferrous metals, paired with chemotextile or napless cloths. This step matters most for EBSD, TEM, phase ID, and any analysis where preparation artifacts would show up in the result. For routine optical work, you can usually skip it.
Etching
Etching reveals microstructure by selectively attacking grain boundaries and phases so they show up under the microscope. PACE supplies the standard reagents (nital, picral, Vilella's) along with specialized formulations for harder-to-prep alloys. Clean the sample first: residues from polishing throw off etching results. Pick the etchant based on the material, the heat treatment, and what you're trying to see. Application is usually swabbing or immersion, with electrolytic etching reserved for stainless steels and other materials that resist chemical attack. Safety data sheets are available for every reagent we ship.
Hardness Testing
Hardness testing gives you a number for how the material resists deformation, which correlates with strength, wear resistance, and whether your heat treatment came out right. Microhardness testers (Vickers and Knoop) work on small features, thin layers, and case-depth profiles. Rockwell is the workhorse for production testing on bulk material. Brinell and MacroVickers handle larger indentations and inhomogeneous materials like castings. The sample surface needs to be flat, polished, and clean for the reading to mean anything. Certified test blocks and indenter tips round out the supplies.
Microscopy & Analysis
Microscopy is where preparation pays off. Metallurgical microscopes give you brightfield, darkfield, and polarized light for looking at grain structure, phases, and inclusions. Stereo microscopes work for 3D surface examination, defect inspection, and macro-scale work. Digital imaging captures what you see for reports, and image analysis software turns it into numbers: grain size by ASTM E112, phase fraction, inclusion content, dimensional measurements. Calibrate your scale, get the illumination right, and the readings hold up across operators and across shifts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I start if I'm building a metallography lab from scratch?
Work through the eight preparation steps and pick one piece of equipment for each: a cutter, a mounting press, a grinder-polisher, a hardness tester, and a microscope. Consumables follow from the equipment you choose. If you tell us your materials and sample volume, we can put together a recommended package.
Do I need equipment for every step, or can I skip some?
Most labs run all eight steps, but the exact stop point depends on your application. Production QC labs may stop after etching, while research labs preparing samples for EBSD or TEM will go through final polishing. Hardness testing and microscopy are usually treated as separate analysis steps with their own equipment.
What is the difference between equipment and consumables?
Equipment is the machine that does the work: cutters, presses, grinder-polishers, microscopes. Consumables are the materials that get used up as you prepare samples: blades, mounting resins, grinding papers, polishing pads, diamond suspensions, etchants, and indenters. Both have to match for the equipment to perform as intended.
How do I pick the right grit sequence for grinding?
Start coarse enough to remove sectioning damage, then progress through finer grits so each step removes the scratches from the previous one. A typical sequence is P120 or P240 to start, then P400, P800, and P1200 before moving to polishing. Harder materials may need diamond grinding discs; softer materials may skip the coarsest step.
When do I need final polishing instead of stopping after rough polishing?
Final polishing matters when you need a surface free of directional scratches and subsurface damage. That includes EBSD, TEM sample prep, phase identification, and high-magnification optical work. For routine QC where you're just checking grain structure or case depth, rough polishing through 1 µm diamond is usually enough.
Do you sell etchants and SDS sheets directly?
Yes. PACE supplies pre-mixed etchants for common alloys along with the safety data sheets for each one. The full etchant catalog and SDS library are available from the support section of the site.
Can I get help choosing the right products for my application?
Yes. Call us at (520) 882-6598 or request a quote. Tell us what you're preparing, how many samples you run, and what kind of analysis you do, and we'll recommend the equipment and consumables that fit.
Additional Resources
More ways to choose the right products and put together a working preparation workflow.
Preparation Guides
Step-by-step procedures for preparing common materials, with recommended equipment and consumables for each one.
Browse Guides ›Materials Database Coming Soon
Our materials database is being revised to verify every property and procedure against primary sources. It will return with detailed preparation procedures and recommended techniques.
Etchant Catalog
The PACE etchant catalog now lives in Materials Prep, our metallography ELN. Search by alloy or etchant name, with composition, target structures, and safety notes.
Open the catalog ›Product Literature
Download brochures, manuals, technical specifications, and safety data sheets for all our products.
View Literature ›Lab Builder
Design a complete metallography lab with our interactive tool. Pick equipment and consumables for your workflow.
Build Your Lab ›Technical Support
Get help with product selection, troubleshooting, and optimization from the team that builds and sells the equipment.
Contact Support ›Not Sure Where to Start?
Tell us what you're preparing and how many samples you run. We'll put together a recommended set of equipment and consumables that fits.