Gabriel M. Lucas
Senior Materials Engineer / Education Support
BUEHLER, LTD.
BIOGRAPHY
Gabriel Lucas is currently a Senior Materials Engineer / Education Support professional employed with Buehler Ltd. He is responsible for developing and updating educational material, training technicians, and solving customer problems in the areas of specimen preparation, etching, macro and micro-indentation hardness testing, and image analysis. Training is performed in house at Buehler Ltd., at ASM International, on site at CMI and at customer locations around the world. He is also active in ASTM as an E-04 Subcommittee Chairmen on Quantitative Metallography Standards, on the board of directors for the International Metallographic Society (IMS) and served as the General Chairman of the 2006 IMS Conference. During his career, he has authored and co-authored over 22 publications and presentations. For eight years prior to joining Buehler Ltd., he was the Senior Metallographic Technician for Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) in Johnstown, PA, where he was responsible for developing analysis methods and characterizing a vast range of materials for the US Navy’s National Center for Excellence in Metalworking Technology (N.C.E.M.T.). The N.C.E.M.T. projects involved materials including, but not limited to, carbon steels, stainless steels, titanium, aluminum, tungsten, and superalloys formed by a wide variety of processes including: welding, casting, P/M, forging, and semi-solid forming. Characterization was performed through the use of light optical microscopy and a scanning electron microscope combined with image analysis. Before working for CTC, he was a Metallographic Technician for Westmoreland Mechanical Testing and Research in Youngstown, PA.
Metallography of Aluminum and Titanium Alloys
Gabriel M. Lucas
June 18, 2007
Light alloys such as aluminum and Titanium are now being used in a wide number of applications including but not limited to; automotive, aerospace, marine, and medical. They are particularly well suited for these applications because of their light weight, resistance to corrosion and excellent strength properties. They are commonly employed in both the cast and wrought conditions and are aged and heat treated to develop specific microstructures. It is their ductile nature that makes them difficult to prepare metallographically without causing residual damage that prevent clear true microstructures. This presentation will out line polishing and etching techniques that will make the task easier and provide confidence in the structures revealed.