Metallurgy Laboratory Procedures 5

[zunom]

We have a small Met lab at our shop. We machine and heat treat axle shafts. My boss wants me to develop laboratory procedures for the lab. Is there a specific ASTM or some other standard I need to use as a guideline?
I have the folllowing equipment in the lab:

Rockwell tester (B & C)
microhardness tester
mounting equipment
polishing equipment
Saw
Brinell tester
Photomicroscope

Most of the time, our prints only require us to carry out Rockwell C, but sometimes we need to get into the microhardness, brinell and microstructure analysis.
Can anyone recomend any standards that I can use as a guideline?
Thanks

 

[CoryPad]

You should review the following standards from ASTM International (

http://www.astm.org):

E 3 Standard Practice for Preparation of Metallographic Specimens
E 6 Standard Terminology Relating to Methods of Mechanical Testing
E 7 Standard Terminology Relating to Metallography
E 10 Standard Test Method for Brinell Hardness of Metallic Materials
E 18 Standard Test Methods for Rockwell Hardness and Rockwell Superficial Hardness of Metallic Materials
E 140 Standard Hardness Conversion Tables for Metals Relationship Among Brinell Hardness, Vickers Hardness, Rockwell Hardness, Superficial Hardness, Knoop Hardness, and Scleroscope Hardness
E 175 Standard Terminology of Microscopy
E 384 Standard Test Method for Microindentation Hardness of Materials
E 883 Standard Guide for Reflected-Light Photomicrography

Use the section headings from these documents to write your sections (Scope, Terminology, Equipment, Procedure, Reporting, etc.). Use the limits (force, displacement, magnification, time, etc.) specified in these documents as the limits stated in your procedure.

Good luck.

Regards,

Cory

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[Yallapragada1022]

Rockwell Tester - ASTM E-18.
Microhardness - ASTM E384.
Brinell Tester - ASTM E10.
Mounting & Polishing - Use equipment supplier's recommended procedures or you can write your own procedures based on your in-house practices.
Saw - you can write your own procedure based on your in-house practices.

Click on the following link:

http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/DATABASE.CART/E.htm?L+mystore+uwer7253+1173221359

Hope this helps.





Rao Yallapragada

 

[swall]

My advice is to not get carried away--don't overdo it. If you are looking to have procedures for ISO certification, it is important to write them to reflect how the lab actually performs them--say what you do and do as you say. Use the ASTM procedures as references to calibrations and test blocks. Have check sheets for periodic checks against a hardness block. Have an outside contractor perform the periodic equipment calibrations per the ASTM standard and purchase hardness test blocks per ASTM standards. I've never worked in a lab where hardness was actually checked per the ASTM standard.

 

[zunom]

Thank you all for the input.
Question for Swall. Do I still need to have the standards mentioned above handy? Because right now I am mostly doing rockwell C because thats what the prints call for. But per my manager, we need to get more into details of microstructures and microhardnesses as our potential customers may need those tests and analysis done.

 

[CoryPad]

If you don't have the standards, then you can't be sure you are performing the test correctly. I partially agree with swall - many labs don't perform testing according to the standards, but many do. And, the lack of conformity to standards is one of the reasons why test results are not repeatable. You should strive for excellence, not wallow in mediocrity.

For hardness testing, a great reference publication is NIST Special Publication 960-5 Rockwell Hardness Measurement of Metallic Materials, available here:

http://www.msel.nist.gov/practiceguides/SP960_5.pdf

Regards,

Cory

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[EdStainless]

step 1: join ASTM for $85, comm. 03
step 2: ask for volume 03.1 as your "free" book
step 3: read the ASTMs and mark all of the 'shall' and 'must' statements.
step 4: write down you actual current methods and make sure that they address the requirements.

These should be short 'cookbook' procedures. The most important items will be calibration and warnings about what not to do.

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Rust never sleeps
Neither should your protection

http://www.trent-tube.com/contact/Tech_Assist.cfm

 

[rerig]

Guideline:
MIL-H-6875 (Now AMS-H-6875)
You can get the old MIL version free.

http://assist.daps.dla.mil/quicksearch/