Universal Specimen Holder

Description

The universal specimen holder consists of a crucible filled with Wood’s metall, as shown in the photo above. This alloy melts at approx. 60-70°C, which is more or less the temperature of a cup of coffee.  The liquid metal can be released from all surfaces eaily and residue-free. A characteristics of this alloy is, to expand a little bit while cooling down. This supports the clamping capacity. Even fragile specimen like dried insects, chalk, wood, foam material, etc. can be clamped and released without damaging.

Usually a heating cooling plate with well defined temperature is the best to keep thermal impact on the specimen as low as possible. To get some droplets off the specimen a soldering-iron or a hair-dryer will do.

Idealy a  combination of a Peltier module and a universal specimen holder can be provided, to simplify the heating and cooling process.