Sample preparation

Includes equipment for thin section production, rock crushing and mineral separation

Various methods and devices are available for separating important minerals and preparing rock and mineral samples.

Rock saws, grinding and polishing machines are used to produce (polished) thin sections of rock.

Sample under the microscope ©Skrzypek / Universität Graz

Schwerminerale unter dem Mikroskop

Result of the sample preparation ©Skrzypek / Universität Graz

Mineralabtrennung anhand von magnetischen Eigenschaften

Equipment

Rock saws for cutting through up to 50 cm blocks of rock
Seeders for sizing rocks
Various Bühler grinding and polishing machines
Frantz magnetic separator
Wilfley vibrating table
Well diamond wire saw 3500
Bühler micro saw
Retsch vibrating disk mill
Retsch micromill (with agate, tungsten carbide and boron carbide insert)
Micromill

Principle

After the sample is crushed with a jaw crusher, the crushed material can be separated by gravity separation in water (gold panning, Wilfley shaking table) or in heavy liquids. A further separation step can be carried out with a hand magnet or a Frantz magnetic separator.

Vibrating table

Magnetic separator

Wire saw

Applications

The different methods lead to concentrates of minerals commonly used for geochronology (zircon, garnet, monazite, xenotime, etc.)

The high-precision wire saw is used for cutting samples whose quantity is limited, thus minimizing the loss of sample material.