Heating microscopy is a non-contact technique that, based upon an advanced image analysis of a specimen subjected to a thermal treatment reproducing industrial firing conditions, identifies several characteristic shapes and related temperatures key to the optimization of manufacturing processes in ceramics, metals, and alloys.
The characteristic temperatures the system can automatically identify include the beginning of sintering, softening, sphere, half-sphere, and melting/fusion. Morphometrix, the latest TA Instruments image analysis software, can also determine the following: flattening curve, contact angle curve, sample area variation curve, ratio curve between width and height, bloating effects, combustion, theoretical glass viscosity (V.F.T. equation) and surface tension (glasses) using the Young-Laplace equation.