During the hot mounting process, various functional fillers are adopted. After being mixed with thermosetting resins, they jointly endow mounting blocks with specific properties. The commonly used functional fillers in hot mounting resins and their functions are as follows:
Mineral powder
Function: Improve the hardness and wear resistance of mounting blocks and reduce costs.
Application: Widely used in general-purpose hot mounting resins, such as phenolic resin and acrylic resin, to enhance the physical properties of mounting blocks.
Glass fiber powder
Function: Further enhance the wear resistance and hardness of mounting blocks, reduce shrinkage rate, realize synchronous material removal, and avoid edge rounding.
Application: Mainly applied in edge-retaining hot mounting resins, including glass fiber filled phenolic-based, acrylic-based and epoxy-based hot mounting resins. It is suitable for sample mounting that requires high edge retention performance.
Ceramic powder
Function: Improve the hardness, wear resistance and chemical stability of mounting blocks.
Application: Added to hot mounting resins requiring high hardness and wear resistance, such as epoxy resin and melamine resin for special purposes.
Pigment indicator
Function: Color mounting blocks to distinguish different samples or meet specific observation requirements.
Application: Appropriate pigment indicators are added into hot mounting resins according to sample preparation and observation demands.
Copper powder
Function: Impart electrical conductivity to mounting blocks and prevent charge accumulation on specimens during SEM (scanning electron microscope) testing.
Application: Mainly used in conductive hot mounting resins, such as copper powder filled conductive phenolic hot mounting resins, for mounting samples with conductivity requirements.
Graphite
Function: Render mounting blocks conductive, and optimize the lubricity and wear resistance of resins.
Application: Incorporated into hot mounting resins for special scenarios, such as graphite-filled conductive acrylic hot mounting resins, applicable to sample mounting requiring both conductivity and lubrication.