Gallery 1
Albert V. Brandemarte
In military settings, the performance of metal can have life or death
consequences. That's why the Department of Defense has metallographers
like ALBERT V. BRANDEMARTE at the Carderock Division of the Naval
Surface Warfare Center in West Bethesda, Md., on its payroll. Many of
his micrographs derive from samples of steel alloys that comprise some
of the tougher stuff of military matériel. One of the delights of
his job, Brandemarte says, is the beauty of the data he creates.
Image 1, which is reminiscent of a windswept desert, reveals some of
the microstructural transformations that occur when a piece of steel
intended for the hull of a naval vessel is hit with a munition. Image 2,
which reminds Brandemarte of Mount Fuji, shows steel that picked up too
much carbon as it was fashioned into a tie-down socket for a ship's
deck. Used to cinch heavy equipment to the deck, metal tie-down sockets
with such flaws can crack and fail. Images 3 and 4 depict the grain
structure of the metal rhenium, an expensive and hard-to-fabricate
material that is particularly suited for duty amid hot propellant
exhausts, as is the case in rockets and gun tubes.
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