In celebration of World Art Day today, the IMS Membership Sub-Committee and the IMS Micrograph Database Committee teamed up together to showcase how art and metallography are intertwined. All four of these images appear in the IMS Micrograph Database. Read the captions below corresponding to each picture, and also feel free to share your own artistic micrographs by replying to this post!
A big thank-you goes to Dana Drake for putting these images together and creating their captions!
1st Image - (sp0104) This image reminds me of the importance of perspective, as a 2D picture it looks like a mountain valley, or an optical illusion. It's actual purpose, however, is to show the flow of grains (and implying the developed compressive stress) in the rolled thread of a fastener.
2nd Image - (rf0042) Notice the difference in the colors, shapes, and sizes of features in the center of the image? Does it look like a blue headed bird sitting in front of the sun, or like a human heart, or perhaps even something else? While the striking colors and contrasting geometries stir the imagination, we are, in reality, informed of a metallic inclusion in the zirconium matrix.
3rd Image - (picturehs0018) This image of a high strength, low alloy steel weld reminds me of the impressionist and abstract works of many artists; Monet, Kandinsky, Klimt, to name a few. The color palette, brought about by Beraha's sulfamic reagent and polarized light, speaks of vibrant flowers, nebulae, and joy.
4th Image - (Cu0350) Wow. This is metal? This wonderful tint-etched image of wrought brass shows us important information about this material's structure and thermal history.
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Johnathon Brehm
R&D Laboratory Support Technologist
Sandia National Laboratories
Albuquerque NM
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