Determination Of Structural Composition Of Alloys By A Metallographic Planimeter

The object of this paper as to show that the structural composition of an alloy may be found by the planimetric measurement of the total area occupied by each of the constituents on a few representative photomicrographs of this alloy. When the area is determined the volume and the proportional weight of the constituent may be calculated. This method has been used for the determination of the structural composition of binary eutectics and other binary alloys with known constituents; also the composition of unknown constituents in binary alloys. The accuracy of the method is. high enough to justify its application to metallographic problems instead of the chemical analysis. THIS work has for its purpose the establishment of a new method for determining the structural composition of alloys. The area occupied by a constituent on a few representative photomicrographs of the alloy is measured, by a planimeter, especially designed for metallographic work, and the volume and proportional weight of the constituent calculated. Experiments have shown that 'the results are accurate enough to justify the application of the method to many problems in metallographic research instead of chemical analysis. The advantage of the method is the possibility, of determining the amount of the constituents with-out separating them from the alloy; their composition may also be determined if the ultimate chemical analysis of the alloy is known. DESCRIPTION OF PLANIMETER Suppose Fig. 1 represents a part of a photomicro-graph on which the total area of the black figures is FIG. 1?-PART OF PHOTOMICROGRAPH ON WHICH TOTAL AREA OF BLACK FIG- URES IS TO BE FOUND. to be found. By a system of parallel lines drawn short equal distances apart all figures may be divided into trapezoids. As the area of a trapezoid is equal to its median multiplied by its altitude, the relation between the total areas of the black and the white figures comprised within each strip is equal to the relation between the sums of medians for these figures respectively.