Petrographic Preparation Facility
The School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment maintains two Petrographic Laboratories; one lab for student use and one technician's lab. These thin-section preparation facilities are also available for contractual work by external clients.
Technical details
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
- Brick saw: cuts rocks that have a height of 11cm high
- Large semi automatic saw: cuts rocks that have maximums of 22cm high and 30cm depth
- small semi automatic saw: cuts rocks that have maximums of 15cm high and 17cm depth
- Trim saw: Trims thin slabs (no higher then 4cm) to smaller block sizes for thin sectioning
- Manual hydraulic down press to break rocks quickly and easily
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:
Flat glass and silicon carbide
Epoxy Resin
Precision digital scale
Desiccator
Micrometer
Petrographic microscope
Hot plates and mounting jig
Core driller
Contact us
For more information on this laboratory and its capabilities please contact our Technical Officer:
junnel.alegado@monash.edu
9905 4880
Location: G69, G70, 9 Rainforest Walk Monash University, Clayton