A 15-in.-daim copper casting and a milled 50-lb stainless steel pipe are a sampling of the variety of specimens examined by the LC-SEM.

“What made that jet part crack?”

“Could this new material improve pacemakers?”

“What are the elements of a dinosaur bone?”

The Y-12 National Security Complex now has a large-chamber scanning electron microscope (LC-SEM) that provides the Department of Energy (DOE) with a unique capability. This LC-SEM, manufactured by VisiTec, permits
Y-12 and its collaborators to fully characterize and analyze a sample up to 1-m tall, 1-m in diameter, and weighing as much as 300-kg at magnifications up to 200,000x with resolution better than 4-nm. In addition, the LC-SEM’s array of ancillary tools enable complete material diagnostic of metallic and non-metallic samples never before achievable on one instrument.

Y-12 is currently collaborating with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and other DOE sites to use the LC-SEM for materials and process characterization, manufacturing process and problem evaluation and analysis, and technology performance validation. The LC-SEM capabilities will provide material answers to that can produce significant scientific, technological, production, process, and economic benefits.

Everything from a grain of sand to a diesel engine can be nondestructively examined in the LC-SEM, which features the world’s largest chamber and an array of diagnostic tools.