Automotive and metals production

Production control rather than investigation: the same few materials, many samples a day, and a number that has to be right and has to be quick.

What this work prepares

Cast iron, for the graphite

Nodularity, nodule count and flake classification, all read on the as-polished surface. A preparation that pulls graphite reports a casting problem that does not exist.

Case-hardened and surface-treated steel

Case depth from an edge, which is the classic edge-retention problem and the reason the mounting resin matters as much as the abrasive.

Inclusion rating in steel

Sulphides pull and oxides relieve. A sequence run long to chase the last scratch turns an inclusion rating into a rating of the preparation.

Aluminium castings and extrusions

Soft, smear-prone and quick to embed the abrasive that is preparing it, with silicon particles that behave nothing like the matrix around them.

Sources

• What each material class needs, and the figures behind it: the linked preparation guide, which cites the manufacturer document and page for every figure it prints.
• What P2 supplies and does not: Independent sourcing.
• The description of this sector’s metallographic work is general engineering knowledge and is P2’s own; it is not a manufacturer statement and it makes no claim about any particular customer.

Preparing cast iron for metallography — the manufacturer’s published preparation route for the material this sector works with most, with the document and page behind every figure in it.

Holding a part number from another manufacturer? Send it and we will match it.