Petrographic Preparation Facility

Safety Equipment

It is a requirement that all staff and students use the appropriate PPE while in the Petrographic lab.  Available for use are safety glasses, hearing protection, lab coats, and rubber gloves.  Closed footwear is paramount.  Thongs and shoes that are open ended like ballerina shoes are not acceptable.  If found not using PPE and not conforming to the simple safety rules and procedures may result in you being banned from the Petrographic lab

Petrographic Thin section Saw-Grinder

Once a sample block has been glued to a glass slide, it is ready for further cutting and grinding on the 'Petrographic Thin Section Saw - Grinder'. Nicknamed the 'Green Machine', samples are cut to a thickness of between 200 and 100 microns (0.2mm to 0.1mm).  Any lower, and you risk your samples fracturing (not the glass but your actual sample), producing textures in the thin section that are not a true representative of the rock sample.

Saws

Diamond Grinding Wheels

The diamond Grinding Wheels are used primarily to remove saw marks from the samples that have been trim sawed.  It is also used to roughly flatten samples ready for final flatness preparation.  It is recommended that samples are grinded using the whole surface of the wheel to promote flatness and reduce the likelihood of having a concave and/or convex wheel.  The grinding wheels are roughly 100 to 200 grit.  They require water as a coolant and is also used to minimise dust inhalation during the grinding of rock blocks.

Other Petrographic Equipment

Other equipment in the lab which assists in making thin sections is listed below.

Flat glass and silicon carbide

Epoxy Resin

Precision digital scale

Desiccator

Micrometer

Petrographic microscope

Hot plates and mounting jig

Core driller