Basic material analysis starts with observing a material sample at low and high magnification. MITECON has a range of microscopes available to support material analysis and material and product development. It is important to notice that often two or more microscopes are used to get the required information from a sample.

The low magnifying (10 - 80 x) stereo microscope is ideally suited for a first assesment of a material or product under investigation. The depth of field and the three dimensional view enable detection of macroscopic flaws in materials and defects in structures. It quickly reveals areas for further analysis at higher maginification for which the other two types of microscopes are used.

The high magnification light microscope (50 - 800 x) has a limited field of depth. Therefore it is mainly used for the analysis of micro specimen. It is very suitable for coating thickness analysis (above 2 -3 micrometer) and structural analysis (i.e. porosity).

The scanning electron microscope (Philips XL-20) uses a vacuum chamber in which small samples are placed. Both the high resolution and the high depth of field are contributing to the versality of this instrument. It is ideally suited for the observation of fractures and to measure layer tickness of coatigns in the realm where light microscopy is not capable.

If necessary image analysis can be deployed using the standard software tool for this: Image Pro Plus. It enables to elucidate structures, strucutural defects and quantify image areas and as such is a very versatile tool. It can be used independent of the microscopes for all images taken with the microscopes.