MEi Newsletter: 2003 Spring

630·365·9060

Materials Engineering, Inc.

47W605 I.C. Trail

Virgil, IL 60151

	Newsletter



2005 Fall 2003 Spring 2001 Fall 2000 Fall 1999 Fall 1998 Spring 1997 Spring 1996 Fall 1996 Spring 1995 Fall		Of Materials Interest2003 Spring
		OES Chemical Composition Added Hello Terry! Electrical Conductivity Capability Added Accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 Want E-reports? New Literature Note On Our Address The "What Is It?" Contest
		OES Chemical Compostition Added Materials Engineering, Inc. recently purchased an Optical Emission Spectrograph (OES), allowing us to determine the chemical composition of iron, aluminum and copper based alloys. Our OES, manufactured by Spectro A. I. is a compact Windows-based unit that incorporates the latest CCD technology and has small sample size analytical capabilities. Spectro is recognized as the leader in the manufacture of OES and other chemical analysis equipment. How/Why Does It Work? Do you remember having a bag of special "rocks" that your dad threw into the camp fire or fireplace that made the fire turn yellow, green or blue in color? Well, that is the basic principal on which Optical Emission Spectroscopy is based. When heated in a flame, each element radiates a characteristic set of spectral lines, each at a distinctive frequency. When these spectral lines lie within the visible light spectrum, we see colors. However, most of the spectral lines lie outside of the visible range of the spectrum and require a system a little more complicated than a fire to provide engineering information. Back in the mid 1800ís, scientists explored this 'colored fire' phenomena, diffracting the light from the flame using a prism and creating a series of spectral lines. The lines were measured, with their wavelength/frequency calculated from the diffraction geometry and used this information to learn about the energy states of the electron shells. Spectrographs were one of the first tools used to characterize the atomic structure of many elements. Most of the spectral lines lie in the ultraviolet range. Common glass absorbs UV radiation, so prisms used in early spectrometer had to be manufactured from quartz. Today, prisms have been replaced by reflection gratings, which perform the same function of separation of the spectral lines. In addition, much radiation is absorbed by air, requiring the spectrometer to be evacuated, with the radiation transmitted through high purity (99.999%) argon. The temperature of a simple flame is too low to vaporize all the elements to produce the full compliment of spectral lines. Spectrometers use an electric spark to obtain full vaporization and create a plasma of all the elements. The arc/spark process consumes a small portion of the sample during the vaporization, leaving a small dark rough spot on the sample that looks like a burned area. For this reason, running an OES is often called "burning" or "sparking" a sample. "Sparking" a sample using OES (left), and arced spot from OES analysis (right). Once the intensities of the spectral lines are measured by the CCDs, the values are converted into weight percentages of the element in the sample. This calculation has been performed in spectrometers by computers since the 1960ís. With the advances in computer technology, spectrometers have become smaller and faster. Our OES is run by a Windows-based computer, providing us with an output that is typical of any Windows computer software packages. The computer has a library containing the chemical composition of several hundred of the most common materials, to which we can easily add any materials we desire. After a spectrum is generated, the library allows for easy matching up grades of steel, aluminum and copper alloys- for easily determining if the sample meets the specification requirements and is "in spec". To support the testing, we have a wide range of standards covering all of the material types and many of the most common alloy grades. These are samples of where the composition is exactly known and certified by an organization such as NIST (the National Institute of Standards). Measurements are checked against these known standards on a daily basis to insure accuracy. MEi also participates in a collaborative testing program where unknown samples are analyzed and the results are compared to the results of the dozens of other laboratories analyzing identical samples. Please call if you have any question about our new OES, and how that might be beneficial to you. MEi Alloy Capabilities We can analyze the following types of materials: Steels: including all carbon and alloy steels, free machining (leaded, resulfurized) boron containing, tool steels, stainless steels, high temperature alloys including some Inconels and high temperature alloys. The samples can be castings or wrought alloys. Aluminum: All aluminum based materials- including all common aluminum association (AA) bar and sheet alloy (1000 through 7000 series such as 6061, 2024, 3004) and cast alloys (100 to 300 series, such as 356 or 380). Copper: All copper based alloys, cast and wrought, brasses, bronzes. Hello Terry! Materials Engineering, Inc is pleased to announce the addition of Terry J. Baldwin to our technical staff as a Senior Metallographer. Terry brings to us over 28 years of experience in commercial metallurgical laboratories. Most recently Terry was a Senior Metallographer with Conam Kawin (formerly Charles Kawin Company) of Glendale Heights, Illinois, where he spent 11 years providing metallurgical services to a wide range on customers. Prior to his tenure at Kawin, he spend 17 years with Material Research Laboratory of Glenwood, Illinois, a commercial metallurgical laboratory that specialized in metallography, fracture mechanics and mechanical testing which closed its doors in 1991with the retirement of its owner, Dr. Ed Ripley. Terry will be in charge of most of our laboratory testing, including Rockwell and Brinell hardness, Knoop and Vickers microhardness, metallographic preparation, microphotography, microstructural analysis and optical emission spectroscopy. Terry is also being trained as a scanning electron microscope (SEM) operator, and will be conducting SEM/EDS analysis in the near future. Beyond the laboratory testing which he will have prime responsibilities, he will also be supporting the engineers on staff in failure analysis, processing problems and research projects. Terry lives in Plainfield, with his wife Debbie of 31 years. Debbie teaches 7 grade mathematics in the Joliet school system. They have 3 children. Terry and Debbie enjoy camping, fishing, gardening, woodworking and church related activities. Help us welcome Terry to Material Engineering, Inc. Electrical Conductivity Capabiltiy Added Materials Engineering, Inc. now offers conductivity measurement, using KJ Law Verimet M4900C. This device works on eddy current principals, with the procedures described in ASTM E1004 "Determining Electrical Conductivity Using the Electromagnetic Method" and can determine the conductivity of non-magnetic materials. A half inch round probe is placed on the sample, providing a direct measurement. The only requirements are that a sample be larger than the probe and at least 0.060" thick. Conductivity is typically measured in %IACS. This is a unitless engineering scale established by rating pure copper at 100%, and comparing the measured conductivity to that of copper. IACS stand the international copper standard, and can be converted to other values by simple multiplication. Conductivity of common metals are tabulated below. Conductivity is another tool used to characterize metals. Its most common use is on aluminum alloys to differentiate between alloys and tempers as a quality control acceptance tool. Different aluminum alloys or different tempers (T4, T6) have difference conductivities, allowing conductivity to be a good tool for sorting. While conductivity is a rather specialized test that not everyone will use, we have had numerous inquires about conductivity testing through the years, causing us to add this method to our capabilities. We are always interested in your comments on test methods you would like to see us offer to serve you better. Accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 This past year, MEi successfully passed a quality audit by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) meeting the quality requirements of ISO/IEC 17025, "General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories", which replaces the less stringent Guide 25. The new specification combines the controls necessary to insure technical competency in a test lab with quality requirements consistent with ISO 9000. Labs that comply with ISO 17025 also operate in accordance with ISO 9001 and 9002 by definition. There are many new requirements in this specification: Laboratories must participate in collaborative testing for all test methods that such testing is offered. Collaborative testing compares the testing results from numerous labs on identical samples, assessing technical competency. Tighter controls are placed on subcontracted testing and calibration. Any testing that is not performed in house can only be subcontracted to a laboratory that is also accredited to ISO 17025. All measurements, calibrations and verifications must be traceable to NIST (National Institute of Standards Technology). Uncertainty of measurement must be established for each applicable test method. All sources of measurement uncertainty must be calculated or estimated. This is generally done using gauge R&R or similar statistical methods. As with any audit, beyond passing and meeting the detailed requirements, we believe the true value is in taking an introspective look at your organization, test methods and internal quality control so that an organization can determine how it is doing and how it can improve. With this in mind, our quality manuals and our internal procedures were reviewed in detail and upgraded to meet the requirements of the new specification, and to continue to provide you with the highest competency in materials testing. If your testing must meet A2LA ISO 17025 requirements, please let us know when you submit the samples. Want E-reports? If you have not asked, you may not be aware that we can now provide our reports in a fully electronic format. This is convenient for centralized storage of data in many companies, or easy transmittal to your other plant sites or customers, especially if they are overseas. We have digital photography for macrophotography, on the stereomicroscope (10x-90x) on the metallurgical microscope (45x to 1000x) and on the scanning electron microscope (35x to many thousand times). Our energy dispersive spectrograph (EDS) spectra can also be produced in digital image form. This allows us to provide you with a completely digital report. We write all our reports using Microsoft Word software. Depending on the number of photographs and spectra, the electronic report files may be several thousand kb in size. If the report contains only one or two images, we will e-mail you the report in MS Word .doc format. If the report contains more photographs, we will save the report as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file, and will e-mail you the much smaller .pdf format file. As there is always the risk of losing the electronic report, we will save the report files (in both pdf and doc formats) to a compact disk, and mail you the CD. This way, you will always have a back up copy in your file, just in case your hard drive should crash. Our only concern with electronic reports is the use of magnifications with the images. The magnifications reported with the images are based upon a print out of the report on a standard 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper. Please use caution and do not scale off the images as displayed on your computer screen. Our default will continue to be to provide you with a hard copy report, with original photographs. If you want to receive your report in a electronic format, please let us know at the time you submit the samples. Similarly, if you (and anyone else in your company) want to switch over exclusively to electronic reports in the future, just e-mail us and let us know. Please contact us if you have any thoughts on how we can make electronic report formats work for you. New Literature We have recently published a new brochure summarizing our services and capabilities, in a compact tri-fold format, which have already been mailed to some of you. Please call us if you would like to receive your copy. Note On Our Address Just a reminder that our zip code changed last year to 60151 when the Virgil post office closed. This closure also forced us to discontinue the use of our P.O. Box. Please verify that you have deleted our P.O box and have the correct zip code, and double check with others in your organization to insure the information is correct in vendor databases, purchasing records, shipping documents and accounts payable files. Thank You. The "What Is It?" Contest In past issues, this back page has always been devoted to our photo identification contest, in which we would take a look at a common everyday object that should be familiar to all of you in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) at high magnification and ask you to guess "what is it?" In this issue, we try something different having to do with the application of metallurgical engineering to one of the most familiar things in everyday life: Money. Most of know that a nickel isn't really made of nickel, but do you know what it is really made of? Test your knowledge (or guessing ability) by matching up the past and present compositions of the four common US coins. Just match the compositions with their proper coins, quarter, dime, nickel, or penny. Past Compostition A) 75% copper, 25% nickel B) 90% silver, 10% copper C) 95% copper, 5% zinc D) 90% silver, 10% copper Current Composition W) 97% zinc, 3% copper X) 92% copper, 8% nickel Y) 92% copper, 8% nickel Z) 75% copper, 25% nickel Please fax, mail or e-mail us (don't call) with your answer. We will draw a winner from all correct entries received by April 15. The correct answer and winner will be published in the next issue "Of Materials Interest". The prize is a $50 gift certificate to a restaurant of your choice, so put your thinking caps on. Results: Unfortunately no one identified the sharp item in our last issue as the tip of a fishing hook. With the clue of 'something many of you have first hand experience with, especially on summer vacation' the most popular entry was a mosquito stinger. This shows us shows what kind of vacations you have been having the past summers. By the way, the fishing hook was suggested by Beran Black, whom many of you remember as a material engineer that left our company a few years back, "retiring" to Vermont where she is spending lots of time fishing with her school age children. Since we had no winner last time, we will award two prizes for this issue's contest.
		Next: 2005 Fall Newsletter