School of Earth and Environment

Thin Section and Polishing

Close up of Albite Mica Schist sample

Introduction

The Thin Section and Polishing facilities are located in the Earth and Environment Building, University of Leeds. They provide specialist services to University staff and research students as well as external academic and corporate customers.

Services Offered

We provide access to the following range of services:

  • We produce high quality rock thin sections and fluid inclusion wafers which are used for SEM, EBSC, Electron Microprobe (EPMA) and optical microscopy studies..
  • We can prepare and polish a range of specimens including rocks, ores and minerals but also glass, metals, composites, ceramics, concrete, soils and fossils. These can be produced as thin sections, block mounted in resin (with vacuum impregnation where necessary) or mounted as individual grains.
  • The polishing process uses specialist lapping, grinding and polishing equipment with a range of platen and polishing surfaces together with various abrasives, the main ones being diamond, silicon carbide and colloidal silica.
  • We can also cut rocks to size, with the limitation of the size of the largest saw (max. possible cut depth 120mm).

Equipment

  • Two Mayer and Burger QS2 Quartz Cutting Machines
  • Logitech GTS1 Thin Section Cut-Off and Trim Saw
  • Logitech LP50 Auto Precision Lapping Machine with automatic lapping plate flatness control
  • Bench top rock saws, lapping plates, grinding wheels, etc.

Further Information