Thin Section and Sample Preparation Facility

The facility supports in-house research and teaching, as well as academic and commercial services in sample impregnation, cutting, grinding, separation and polishing for the preparation of geological samples.

The Thin Section and Sample Preparation Facility is located within the School of GeoSciences, at the University of Edinburgh. 

  • We support School in-house research and teaching, as well as services to all departments within the University.
  • We also provide academic and commercial research services to external users such as other universities, research bodies and commercial organisations.

Our expertise and services are also available for the preparation of other materials.

Contact and location

Contact

Mr Kevin Doddskevin.dodds@ed.ac.ukThin Sections and Lapidary Facility Manager

Location

Address: John Murray Building, The University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, James Hutton Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FE

Please note that parking on campus is strictly by permit only, and parking spaces are subject to availability. Commercial and external users should contact our staff about parking arrangements.

Access and costs

For the wider University and all external users:

Please contact the facility to discuss availability, as well as analytical requirements and charging information.

For staff and students in the School of GeoSciences:

Access to the facility must be completed through a job request form, which can be found on the Thin Section and Sample Preparation Facility intranet page.

Preparation equipment

Preparation equipment includes:

  • Logitech LP50 lapping machine.
  • Buehler beta with vector polishing head.
  • Buehler metaserv with autopol polishing head.
  • Logitech CS10 saw.
  • Buehler petrothin cutter/grinder.
  • Kulzer technomat pressure vessel.
  • Buehler simplimet 1000 hot mounting press.

Mineral separation:

We offer the potential to separate minerals (e.g. apatite, olivine,  zircon) from crushed rocks based on their density and magnetic properties. The following procedures are suitable for rocks that have been crushed and sieved to <1mm in size.

  • A Wilfley table which separates minerals according to their density and works well for grains that have been sieved between >250 and 1000microns. For finer fractions (<250 microns) a separate deck is available.
  • Magnetic separation of minerals depends on the their magnet susceptibility. We use a Franz magnetic separator with variable slope and tilt at different currents to separate specific mineral fractions.
  • We use a heavy liquid for the final separation. We combine the sample with LST Fastfloat/Sodium Polytungstate for separation based on the minerals density.

Equipment suppliers

We have included some links to equipment suppliers, that may be of interest to you.

Services available

  • Ordinary (transmitted light) thin sections sizes 26x76mm
  • Polished thin sections sizes 26x48mm
  • Polished resin blocks, 1" diameter
  • Blue dyed resin impregnation is available
  • Colloidal silica polishing is also available
  • Sawing and grinding of rock samples

Small Research Facility (SRF)

This facility is operated as a Small Research Facility (SRF).

A Small Research Facility (SRF) is a facility or service provided by the School and used for research and teaching. They are also available for use by the wider community such as external academic or commercial use. Our SRF's are available for hire or on a consultancy basis. These charges are recognised by grant funders and can therefore form part of a grant submission.


This article was published on