Industrial Microscopes and Those Fancy Rubber Shoes You’re Wearing
What do industrial microscopes have to do with your rubber shoes? You might be surprised!
Industries and Industrial Microscopes
Before that pair of rubber shoes found its way into your shoe collection, it had to undergo several rigid inspections. The sticky goo stripped from the rubber trees in Burmese plantations had to be graded and if it was good enough to be transformed into running shoes, hiking shoes, or plain showing-off shoes, it was shipped to manufacturing sites to be inspected again. Chemists peeked into their industrial microscopes to check the quality of the rubber.
As if it weren’t enough, they had to peek again through their high-powered microscopes to spot imperfections in the pre-cut rubber material that would soon become shoes stamped with pricey labels. These chemists are not wasting their time, they are paid to do their jobs right because shoe companies have to protect their reputation and wouldn’t dream of selling you imperfect rubber shoes – starting with the soles up to the shoe lace, everything must be perfect.
It is not only the rubber shoes industry that relies heavily on these microscopes. Other industries such as textiles, paints, dyes, and plastics, have chemists to study every detail of their products from start to finish. Product inspection aside, these industries invest a lot of money for research and product development and enhancement. If you don’t know it yet, even the parts of the microscopes have to examined under microscopes, of the industrial kind.
Industrial Microscope Defined and Explained
A textbook definition defines the microscope as a stereo microscope. A stereo microscope provides a 3D image of the object. In any industry, including electronics and micro-chips, it is important that cross-sections of the object can be viewed so it can be determined how these materials react to stress and to gauge the extent of the effect of the effect.
Industrial microscopes are equipped with superior illumination and uses external light to show the specimen. The external light maybe angled differently to display the some aspects or details of the specimen so to view specimens under different lighting, filters have to be used. Through the lens, bumps and tiny cracks or lines can be detected.
