Experiment No.

: 01

Name of the Experiment: Study of a Metallurgical Microscope.

Objective:

 To be acquainted with the Operation, Construction, application and capabilities of a

Metallurgical Microscope

Introduction:

The Metallurgical Microscope is one of the important tools for Metallurgist. It helps revealing the
microstructure of the materials in details, which in turn will help Metallurgist to analyze the properties
and behavior of the material under study. Biological Microscope differs from Metallurgical one in a way
that the later employs reflection of light for illumination compared to former which uses transmission of
light for the same. Metallurgical Microscope has two distinct optical systems, namely, Objective and
Eyepiece. Combination of both of these will render the magnified virtual image of the same under
observation. For effective handling of the Microscope, it is essential that the Metallurgists should know
the working principle of the microscope and fundamental terminology related with basic optical
systems.

Main Components:

1. Stage: - A flat movable table supporting specimen. This can be moved up or

Down by knobs.

2. Tubes: - The vertically movable tube containing eyepiece, objective and

Plane reflector. The tube length varies from 160 mm to 250 mm.

3. Rough & fine focus Adjustments: - The limbs of microscope carry the

Coarse & fine adjustments.

4. Objective: – The body tube carries revolving nose piece carrying the three

objectives. This enables quick change of the objective which helps for a

quick resolving the structure of metal, the magnification of lenses is

enlarged on focal length of the lens used.

The important properties of an objective are

1. Magnifying Power

2. Resolving Power.

It is the property by which an objective show distinctly represented two

small adjacent bonds in the structure of the object. This is usually expressed as

number of lines per mm that can be separated which depends on the numerical
operator, the wavelength of the light used. Resolution is particularly important

during the microscopy of the micro constituents of metals consisting of fine

lamination with core resolution which appears as one uniform area, where as an

objective with higher numerical appearance reveals deeper nature of the structure.

5. Eyepiece: - It is named, as it is near to the eye. It is made up of various Powers

such as X5, X10, X15 etc.

Working Principle:
Metallurgical microscope is the optical microscope, differing from other microscopes in the
method of the specimen illumination.
Since metals are opaque substances they must be illuminated by frontal lighting, therefore
the source of light is located within the microscope tube.

This is achieved by plain glass reflector, installed in the tube.

The optical scheme of metallurgical microscope is shown in the picture.

The image quality and its resolving power are mainly determined by the quality of the
objective.

The objective magnification depends on its focal length (the shorter focal length, the higher
magnification).
The eyepiece is the lens nearest the eye. The image is magnified by eyepiece in x6, x8 or
x10.

The total magnification of the microscope may be calculated by the formula:

M = L*E/ F
Where

L- the distance from back of objective to eyepiece;

F – the focal length of the objective;
E- the magnifying power of the eyepiece