Automatización del análisis micro-estructural de los aceros tratados térmicamente mediante la utilización de LABVIEW, implementado en el laboratorio de tratamientos térmicos de la Facultad de Mecánica

Abstract

The present paper is about micro structural metallographic analysis automation of the steel treated thermally by means of Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) usage implemented at material laboratory of Mechanics Faculty. Micro structure of steel can be analyzed by means metallographic observation that is why software programming has been developed in LabVIEW 2012 in order to recognize automatically the kind of steel and thermal treatment which it has been exposed to as well as other important data such as: equivalences in other norms, characteristics, usage, chemical composition, iron-coal diagram, Temperature, Time and Transformation (TTT) curves, micro constituent percentage, hardness, metallographic attack time and reactive. All these data were collected and they are shown in an information chart into a virtual instrument (programming files developed in LabVIEW with man-machine interface) This program captures a shot of a steel micro structure; it compares it with the shots existing in the data basis and identifies what kind of steel is. Then it shows a summary sheet with exact data of the main characteristics and thermal properties. So, metallographic-analysis process is reduced from 30 minutes to up 2 minutes. This time was used by this software to identify the exposed material. This implied a work time reduction, technical and more accurate data than the first time in order to develop this research. This research will be useful for students and professionals who have knowledge about industrial automation, metallography and programming in LabVIEW. Theory and practice were used as methodology. The theory incorporates terms, author concepts who know about research and practice has a data basis containing several kind of steel information.