[Histonet] cryosectioning drilling cores

[Cheryl Rehfeld - Meyer Instruments, Inc]

Hi all,

I have a customer that needs to cut drilling mud cores in the cryostat.  The
materials are extremely hard such as quartz and silica.  The problem we have
encountered is that the section falls apart.  He does not want to use the
tape system since when we tried packing tape and it did not hold the sample
together.  We are using a tungsten carbide knife which is working fine and
we section the material at 30 microns thick.

I have thought about trying to infiltrate the specimen with plastic resin
and section it on a microtome instead.  The problem is that the cores are 3
inches in diameter and it could prove difficult getting all the water out
out of the sample.  He is doing image analysis studies on the sample.

I am hoping that some of the materials or hard sample people on the histonet
may have some ideas to try.  Thank you for your help.
Cheryl Rehfeld
Meyer Instruments, Inc.
281-579-0342
e-mail csr <@t> meyerinst.com