Cutting and mounting aluminum and aluminum alloys is simple.
When cutting aluminum, use a hard silicon carbide cutting wheel suitable for non-ferrous metals.
When plating specimens, it is usually sufficient to use an aldehyde resin. However, thin foils and specimens to be anodized should be placed in slow-curing epoxy resin with the specimen protruding from the back of the specimen. Make electrical contact points.
Preparation of aluminum and aluminum alloy samples: Mechanical grinding and diamond polishing When processing aluminum and aluminum alloys, we recommend mechanical grinding first and then diamond polishing. For many pure aluminum and wrought alloy samples, electrolytic polishing and mechanical grinding are also recommended. To avoid excessive mechanical deformation, the finest possible abrasive should be used for surface grinding. The hardness, size and quantity of the specimen should be considered. However, even for large pure aluminum specimens, use 500# silicon carbide or grinding paper for surface grinding. Grinding is also sufficient. Large aluminum alloy castings can be ground with 220# silicon carbide foil or 320# silicon carbide. The grinding force must be low enough to avoid deep deformation and reduce the friction between the silicon carbide foil or grinding paper used for grinding and the surface of the specimen.
