Category Archives: scanning electron microscope

Metallurgical Engineering Intern

posted March 2020

Welcome to MEE’s new intern, Kelsy Holtgrewe.  Kelsy received her Bachelor’s in Metallurgical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology in December. She’ll be starting work toward a Master’s at Colorado School of Mines this fall. She has previous work experience in the materials labs of two large industrial companies so she is familiar with many of the processes and procedures in our metallographic and SEM labs.

MEE understands that internship programs are beneficial to both the student and the company.  Our busy materials science laboratories will provide Kelsy with a valuable real-world engineering experience this summer and our technical staff appreciates the opportunity to mentor new professionals in the field of metallurgical engineering.

Kelsy in the one of SEM labs at MEE.

Filed under: About MEE, Materials Science Engineers, Materials testing laboratory, metallography, scanning electron microscope,

Microscope Monday

posted January 2020
SEM image of snowflake

Snowflake

Corrosion Pit

Copper corrosion pit

Twenty years ago, MEE Lab Manager, Kurt Schenk, figured out a way to capture the beauty of a freshly fallen snowflake with an SEM. Those images and hundreds of others taken over the years in our laboratory have been saved in a file on our network simply called “cool images”.

Five years ago, we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite cool images on social media and the MEE Facebook page was created. We have since posted over 180 images. Some are just-for-fun, like snowflakes, insects and even the grooves in an LP, but most of the images are the kind of things we observe in our daily work. We have posted images that highlight fracture mechanisms, unique microstructures and particular imaging techniques used to gather critical data needed in a failure analysis investigation.

Filed under: Light Microscope, Materials testing laboratory, metallography, scanning electron microscope,

Microscopy Spring Symposium

posted May 2019

MEE staff to attend Microscopy Spring Symposium

Dieter Scholz and Jason Larson will be attending the Minnesota Microscopy Society’s Annual Spring Symposium on Friday May 3 in St Paul. The topic of this year’s symposium is Non-Traditional and Emerging Microscopy Techniques. MEE is a corporate sponsor of the  MN Microscopy Society and will have a booth at this event. Stop by and say hello to Dieter and Jason and ask about MEE’s expanded laboratory facilities and the new microscopes we have acquired, including the new JEOL IT500HR Scanning Electron Microscope.

Dieter Scholz

Jason Larson

Filed under: Materials testing laboratory, microscopy, scanning electron microscope,

Mentoring Materials Science Students

posted June 2018

Last Thursday we hosted thirty high school students at MEE  as part of a week-long Materials Science Camp sponsored by the MN Chapter of ASM International.  Under the direction of  industry and academic based “Materials Mentors”, students learned about the process of running a failure analysis investigation. MEE provided a space for the students to get hands on experience with sample preparation, Rockwell hardness testing, light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

 

 

Three of our staff, Larry Hanke, Kurt Schenk and Neal Hanke, were  camp mentors. This was MEE’s twelfth year sponsoring the camp.

Filed under: About MEE, Failure Analysis, Materials Science Engineers, Materials testing laboratory, Microhardness Testing, microscopy, Rockwell Hardness, scanning electron microscope,

Pinpointing Microscopic Targets

posted April 2018

To allow more consistent metallographic section preparation of very small targets, MEE has added a Leica EM/TXP to our selection of sectioning tools. The Leica EM/TXP is specifically designed for more precise and efficient targeting of points of interest in very small specimens. A combination mill/grinder/polisher and stereomicroscope, the Leica EM/TXP, allows the technician to observe the sample during preparation improving accuracy in locating microscopic targets.

Filed under: Materials testing laboratory, microscopy, Sample Preparation, scanning electron microscope,

Microscope as Symbol of the City of Minneapolis

posted February 2018

We weren’t familiar with the Minneapolis city flag until just recently, but were pleasantly surprised to see one of the symbols on it is a microscope. That seems fitting to us! Microscopes are one of the most important tools we use at MEE to provide our clients in the medical device, industrial and electronics industries with high-quality materials characterization for their advanced materials and critical components.

MEE has three scanning electron microscopes (and a new one coming this summer) and a light microscopy laboratory equipped with a variety of light microscopes with magnifications ranging from 5X to 2,400X.

There is a small contingent of Minneapolis citizens advocating for an update of the flag. We would hate to see the microscope image go away but either way, MEE will always be flying the microscopy banner.

 

City of Minneapolis Flag

Filed under: About MEE, Light Microscope, microscopy, scanning electron microscope,

Paper Published in Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention

posted January 2018

Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention

Alkaline Carbonate SCC Failures at a Refinery, co-written by MEE staff engineers, Ryan Haase and Larry Hanke was recently published in the Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention ( First Online: January 16, 2018)

A metallurgical evaluation was performed to investigate two failures from carbonate-containing sour water service at a refinery. The paper details the visual, SEM/EDS, metallographic, and microhardness evaluations used to determine the failure mechanism for each refinery component.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Failure Analysis, metallography, Microhardness Testing, scanning electron microscope,

MEE Greatest Hits

posted July 2016

One of our long-time customers recently sent us this image of a tower of CD’s containing project data that he humorously refers to as “MEE’s Greatest Hits: the essential collection.” This is data he has collected over a 10-year period of doing business with MEE and contains mostly SEM images and EDS analysis spectra.

Once upon a time,  images from scanning electron microscopes were printed on Polaroid film. Today we have many ways of sharing project data with our customers: CD’s, flashdrives, emails, or a secure cloud storage account.  Our goal is to get the best quality, most-timely, and consistently-reliable results for our customers. We think this photo is proof of a satisfied customer.

SEM data on CD

SEM data on CD’s

Filed under: About MEE, Materials testing laboratory, scanning electron microscope,