Date: August 5th 2021 1

Materials characterization: Metallography plan for Aluminium

Báez Montoya, Juan José; Cendales Torres, Juan Felipe; Real Lozano, Manuela; Rodríguez
Rodríguez, Ana Gabriela.

Universidad de la Sabana, Engineering Faculty, Chem/Mech Engineering Dpt.

Abstract

In this laboratory practice it is intended to characterize aluminium through a metallography process, for this the
process to be followed in this analysis will be studied, differentiating each of the stages that must be carried out to
achieve a reliable result, in addition to this , the different properties of this metal will be identified, it will also be
compared with its different alloys analysing the possible differences that may be found, all this in order to determine
if the pure metal is more or less useful than its alloys

Index Terms—Aluminium, characterization, metal, metallography.

size [1].

I. INTRODUCTION1

Aluminium is a soft, ductile metal. Deformation

induced damage is a common preparation problem in
the purer compositions. After preparation, the surface
will form a tight protective oxide layer that makes
etching difficult. Commercial grades contain many
discrete intermetallic particles with a variety of
compositions. These intermetallic particles are usually
attacked by etchants before the matrix. Although the
response to specific etchants has been used for many
years to identify these phases, this procedure requires
careful control. Today, energy dispersive analysis is
commonly performed for phase identification due to
its greater reliability [1].

Five and four step practices for aluminium alloys are

presented in Table 6.1 and 6.2 with expected results as
in Figure 6.1. While MgO was the preferred final Metallographic study of metallic microstructures
polishing abrasive for aluminium and its alloys, it is a (aluminium alloys) can be used to determine several
difficult abrasive to use and is not available in very things including:
fine sizes. Colloidal silica has replaced magnesia as  Heat treatment effect,
the preferred abrasive for the final step and is finer in  Mechanical processing,
 Material properties and phases present.
1
Corresponding author:
  Structural effect of aging.
 Others... In this document, a sample of Aluminium obtained
from Aluminium foil it’s proposed to be analysed
under metallography.

II. MATERIALS FOR CHARACTERIZATION

A. Case study: Aluminum foil ball

Aluminium foil is 98.5% aluminium and is

Figure 1 Example for metallography performed
over a severely sheared Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy to analyze
the affection of grain boundary characteristic on
intergranular corrosion and mechanical properties.
[retrieved from [2].
Aluminium is a multifaceted material with a wide
variety of uses, such as acting as a matrix metal for
composites. It has a silvery white appearance and is
used as a pure metal or as an alloy.
It is extremely light and small amounts of alloying
elements can increase its strength. It is also highly
resistant to corrosion. This is due to a passive
aluminium oxide film that is closely connected to the
balanced primarily from iron and silicone that
provide puncture resistance. The molten alloy is
rolled thin and solidified between large water-
cooled chill rolls. During the final lamination, two
layers of paper are passed simultaneously through
the mill. The side that meets the polished steel
rollers becomes shiny, the other side opaque sale.
There is no difference as to which side meets the
food.
Table 1. Common composition for aluminium
alloy selected for metallographic study.
Material % Description
Aluminum is a chemical element,
Aluminum 98.5
with the symbol Al and atomic
number 13.
Iron Iron1 2 is a chemical element with
2.5
atomic number 26 located in group
8, period 4 of the periodic table of
elements.

surface and that is capable of spontaneous self-

renewal when the surface is damaged. The other
significant properties of aluminium include its high
thermal conductivity and easy formability, whether by
casting, hot or cold working, or machining, as well as
its neutral taste and non-toxicity [3]

Common uses of aluminium or its alloys:

 Heavy duty / light weight applications in the

aeronautical, aerospace and automotive
industries.
 Polished and brushed surfaces, as well as
anodized colors, in the construction industry.
 Non-toxic / tasteless packaging and food
industry machinery [3]
Date: August 5th 2021 3

A method of etching an aluminum foil for electrolytic

capacitors, the method consisting of the following
steps:

1. electrolytically, by applying dc voltage, etching an

aluminum foil for electrolytic capacitors that has a
high cubic texture in an electrolyte containing chloride
ions to form pits, during this step, the unetched
surface portion of the aluminum foil becoming
gradually smaller due to an increasing number of pits
formed in the surface, and

2. enlarging the pits formed in the above step by

Fig. 1. Aluminum foil ball etching, characterized in that in the first, electrolytic
etching step the current density is decreased from a
maximum value continuously or gradually stepwise so
that the current density on the unetched surface
portion of the aluminum foil is kept approximately
constant, a ratio of A/B being in the range of 0 to 0.4,
III. PROCEDURE
wherein A denotes the time taken by the current
density to reach the maximum value and B denotes the
A. Sample acquisition.: time taken by said current density to reach a final
value from the maximum value [5].
The sample will be taken from a piece of aluminium
foil.
B. Sample preparation.

The piece of foil aluminium will be folded various

times so that it creates a solid piece of aluminium.

C. Sample cutting.

As said, the foil aluminium will be extracted by

cutting it with scissors, since it is as thin as paper.

D. Sample polishing and/or embedding.

Fig. 2. Flow chart of metallography analysis
The aluminium foil will be folded multiple times to
create a rigid structure this piece of material will be
polished creating a smooth and shiny surface by
rubbing it or by applying a chemical treatment.

E. Sample etching. IV. EXPECTED RESULTS

In the analysis of aluminium by means of
metallography, it is expected to analyse the
microstructure of this metal in order to define the
properties and microscopic characteristics and how
they affect the macroscopic appearance of the
material, it is also expected to understand more clearly
the chemical structure of the material. metal and its
composition.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors thanks to struers ensuring certainty and
Professor Alejandro Amadeus.
COMMENTS
In my group, we can’t do a real metallography.
https://patents.google.com/patent/EP0671489
B1. [Accessed: 05- Aug- 2021].
[6] Preguntaleakaren.custhelp.com. 2021. ¿Cómo
se fabrica el papel de aluminio?. [online]
Available at:
<https://preguntaleakaren.custhelp.com/app/a
nswers/detail/a_id/4016/~/%E2%BFc
%E3%B3mo-se-fabrica-el-papel-de-aluminio
%3F> [Accessed 5 August 2021].
[7] 2021. [online] Available at:
<https://brainly.lat/tarea/24018231>
[Accessed 5 August 2021].
[8] Es.wikipedia.org. 2021. Hierro - Wikipedia,
la enciclopedia libre. [online] Available at:
<https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierro>
[Accessed 5 August 2021].

REFERENCES
[1] "Información materialográfica sobre el
aluminio | Struers.com", Struers.com, 2016.
[Online]. Available:
https://www.struers.com/es-ES/Knowledge/M
aterials/Aluminum#. [Accessed: 05- Aug-
2021].

[2] Pat. L. Mangonon; 2001; Ciencia de

Materiales: Selección y Diseño; Pearson
Education; ISBN: 970-26-0027-8; 840 Pages.

[3] Donald R. Askeland, Pradeep P. Fulay,

Wendelin J. Wright; 2011 ; The Science and
Engineering of Materials (6th. Ed.); Cencage
Learning; ISBN-13: 978-0495296027; 901
pages. (1st chapter brief summary available at
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Donald-R-
Askeland/dp/0495296023)

[4] ]"Aluminum Metallographic Specimen

Preparation & Testing", Buehler, an ITW
Company, 2017. [Online]. Available:
https://www.buehler.com/aluminum-
metallographic-specimen-preparation-and-
testing.php. [Accessed: 05- Aug- 2021].

[5] s. acid et al., "EP0671489B1 - Method of

etching aluminum foil for electrolytic
capacitors - Google Patents",
Patents.google.com, 1994. [Online].
Available: