Lappatrici

Laboratory of Geological thin sections

 
Service information
The service is offered for teaching and for research. There is also activity, regulated by a tariff, for the external operator.
 
 
Business hours
From Monday to Thursday : 8:00 to 15:50 , Friday : 8:00 to 14:00; open to students from 08:30 to 13:00 Monday to Friday.
 
 
Instrumentation
For cutting rocks and preparation of thin sections are used:
  • Diamond blade cutters
  • Lapping with a flat iron
  • Vacuum pumps
  • Saws with diamond tools
  • Hotplate
  • Vacuum bell for englobed objects
  • Hood
  • Glass plates
  • Carborundum silicon
  • Epoxy resins
  • xylene
  • Eukitt
  • Acrylic wax
  • Optical Microscope
 
 
Preparation of samples
For thin sections the samples are cut for preparation of the brick through the use of a diamond blade cutter; the brick is lapped with lapping and lubricated with water and carborundum silicon; slides are lapped with lapping or glass plate; the bricks are dried and heated with a hot plate and then they are glued on the appropriate slides with acrylic wax or epoxy resin (the vacuum bell is used only for samples that are englobed); the samples already glued are rough-grind through the use of cutter vacuum or with saws with diamond tools; once the sample is roughed, it is ready for lapping (for samples with roughed cutter vacuum, the lapping is performed with lapping machine vacuum and subsequently hand on glass, while for the samples rough-grind with saw only the lapping hand is executed); the samples are constantly checked at the optical microscope to verify the thickness and planarity: the sections must have a thickness of about 30 microns and must be planar. If required, thin sections are covered with a coverslip. In the laboratory performing even: cuts of rock samples to measure, lapping of the entire sample, colouring with methylene blue.
 
 

Some pictures

In senso orario dall’alto: assottigliatrice per sezioni sottili; cappa; microscopi; troncatrice campioni di roccia; troncatrice di precisione.

In senso orario dall’alto: assottigliatrice per sezioni sottili; cappa; microscopi; troncatrice campioni di roccia; troncatrice di precisione.

 

 

 

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