Thin Section Workshop

This facility prepares rock and other hard materials in-house for the School of Ocean and Earth Science, other university departments as well as outside organisations. We produce both large and standard thin sections, polished thin sections, and grain mounts. Other services include; cutting, coring, grinding, lapping and impregnation of unstable material. We will work with a range of materials such as; rock, metal, plastic, ceramic, bone and others. If you are unsure please feel free to give us a call. Prices and requisition form are available at the bottom of the page.

For external work contact:

Daniel Doran
E: D.E.Doran@soton.ac.uk

Matt Beverley-Smith
E: m.beverley-smith@soton.ac.uk

T: 023 8059 2016

Please see SharePoint site for internal users only

Sections available for preparation:

• Standard covered/uncovered thin section 1” x 3” for transmitted light microscopy 
• Large thin section 2” x 3”
• Polished thin section 1” x 2” polished down to 0.3um
• Polished thick 1” x 2” 200um thick for laser ablation or SEM
• Dickinson staining of carbonates
• UV and blue resin available 

Mounting services:

• Ore mounts in 1”, 1.25” or 2” round blocks
• Grain mounts 1” round blocks both mapped and un-mapped
• Double polished Fluid Inclusion Wafers 150-300um thick
• SEM stubs 1” round blocks
• Cutting hard and super hard materials

Other services:

• Grinding and lapping of materials
• Precision lapping up to 4”OD parts
• Polishing of up to 4”OD parts
• Rock coring .25” up to 2”

Where our samples are used:

The samples we produce are used extensively in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year geology courses as teaching sets for microscopy. The bulk of our work is producing sample sets for our extensive research base here at Ocean and Earth Science. In addition we do a range of material science samples for industry and research. In addition to reflected and transmitted microscopy our samples go on to other laboratories within the faculty including: SEM, Laser Ablation, GAU-Radioanalytical Laboratories, and XRD.

Take a Virtual tour of our facilities.

Equipment used in our laboratory:

• Jones Shipman 540 surface grinder
• ATM Saphir 350 12” grinder
• Struers Planopol-2 12” multi sample grinder
• Cut rock high speed grinder
• Husqvarna TS350E saw
• Husqvarna TS230F saw
• Forbco precision rock coring drill
• Meddings 3phase large coring drill
• Logitech LP30 automated lapping machines
• Lapmaster 14 lapping machines
• Buehler Petropol polishing machines
• Buehler Metaserv polishing machine
• Buehler Petrothin

Our suppliers:

We buy our equipment from a range of suppliers such as Kemet, MetPrep, Buehler, Struers, Brunel Microscopes, Husqvarna and Logitech. If you are interested in thin sectioning or setting up a lab abroad we are happy to help specify equipment and provide training.

Contact:

Daniel Doran Lab Manager
E: D.E.Doran@soton.ac.uk

Matt Beverley-Smith
E: m.beverley-smith@soton.ac.uk

T: 023 8059 2016