General Info

This equipment employs a piezoelectric crystal to ultrasonically vibrate a tubular cutting tool against a specimen. A slurry of water and boron carbide grit is applied around the tip of the tool, which causes particles in the slurry to impact the specimen, eroding away a circular or rectangular impression, eventually cutting a section from the specimen.

Vendor:   Gatan
Model:     601
Purpose: Precision cutting of hard, brittle samples for SEM/TEM sample preparation.  

Important

  1. Material restrictions in effect: here
  2. Training required prior to use: here
  3. More info for lab members: Manuals and Processes

Cutting Tools available:

  1. 3 mm disc 
  2. 2.8 mm disc
  3. 4 mm x 5 mm rectangle 

Sample Size

Maximum thickness: 5 mm

Maximum width: 2.5 cm

Equipment Features

 • Manually tuned frequency driver to optimize cutting speed:

Minimize mechanical and thermal damage


• Spring-loaded platform applies constant force couples with a magnetically held table to prevent lateral movement:

Reducing edge chipping and sample damage


• Integrated stereo microscope and X,Y table:

Enables precise centering of a site-specific area


• Broad selection of shapes and sized cutting tools available from vendor