Sophie Yan, Applications Engineer, EDAX
EBSD in China is a big topic and it may sound as though I am not qualified to judge or to summarize the current situation. However, as I have worked with EBSD applications for several years, I have personal experience to share. More than ten years ago, I didn’t know about EBSD when I was studying the microstructure of materials. I was in Shanghai at that time and the environment was kind of open. It is probably that at that time in China: very few people knew about EBSD. Today the situation has changed enormously after just after 10+ years. Most researchers now try to put EBSD on their microscope. Microscopes including EDS and EBSD capability are standard in Chinese universities.
As an Applications Engineer, I visit research organizations, companies, and factories. I meet customers from many different backgrounds. Some of them are experts but more are new to microanalysis, especially students from science and engineering universities. They may each have a different focus, but they all have high expectations of EBSD. The professors care about the functions which can solve their issues. If there is currently no such function, then they often ask if we can add it. Entry level users prefer to learn how to operate the microscope and detectors quickly so that they get their results as soon as possible. The most frequent question asked is, what can EBSD do? Then I begin my introduction and I see that they become more and more interested. Sometimes they have high expectations. For example, when I demonstrate stress/strain analysis, I am often asked how to get stress value. This is a common misunderstanding because as an indirect way technique, EBSD can show the strain trend of materials, but it is beyond it to measure stress value.
My routine work includes introduction and training. Over a period of time, I can see a newcomer becoming more experienced and getting his own results, which makes me proud as a supporter. Whereas I care about the EBSD technology itself, the customers are more interested in learning how to use it in their work to solve some of their analysis challenges. They often give me new ideas and make me aware of other areas besides pure technology, for example, how to remove the users’ initial fear for EBSD. As a student majoring in material science I thought crystallography was very different from the reality I now understand. As a ‘teacher’ I am not focused on how to keep our users’ interest on EBSD and reminding to them to use it regularly. Fortunately, social media has improved the speed and consistency of our communication. When issues are solved quickly, people think the EBSD technique is less difficult. Effective communication contributes to the technology transfer.
The level of adoption of EBSD hardware in China is excellent, but the usage of and research into the technique is still in its infancy. I have spoken to many people about this issue. The interesting thing is that outsiders tend to give an optimistic perspective. An Australia professor told me several years ago that we should be taking a longer-term view and that there would probably be, a tremendous change in the next ten years. Quantitative results make a qualitative change. I hope he is right!
Fortunately, EBSD usage in China has increased greatly and continues to increase, which shows us a promising future.