Fast, reliable, mechanical milling.

The Gatan Dimple Grinder II is a mechanical pre-thinning system for TEM. Save time with fast, reliable, even pre-thinning, to thin your sample to near electron transparency and significantly reduce ion milling time.
Fast, reliable, mechanical milling.
With a supporting rim for strength.
Final thickness.
Mechanical grinding techniques are the fastest way of thinning samples for TEM. The Gatan Dimple Grinder II thins samples quickly, with minimal damage. Quickly produce a large area for final processing with slower, chemical methods.
For example, a 100 μm thick, 3mm diameter specimen can be reduced to a few microns in the central region, in just 20 minutes for silicon and 100 minutes for sapphire. Final chemical or particle beam thinning can then be performed to produce large electron transparent areas, ready for TEM.
Certain materials that are resistant to mechanical damage (eg silicon, ceramics and hard materials) can be fully prepared with the Dimple Grinder, by reducing the polishing speed and using a special polishing wheel for the final few microns.