Recognized as one of the world's leading laboratories in petrographic examinations, CMC specializes in characterization, evaluation, testing, and failure investigations of construction materials using petrographic examinations (optical microscopy), SEM-EDS, X-ray Diffraction (XRD), chemical analyses (wet chemistry), oxide chemistry by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), micro-scale elemental mapping by micro-XRF and EDXRF, simultaneous water-soluble chloride, sulfate, and other anion analyses by ion chromatography (IC), automated potentiometric titration for acid or water-soluble chloride contents, rapid chloride permeability, sulfate content by XRF and IC, thermal analysis (TGA, DTG, DSC), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and various physical tests from length change measurements for determining shrinkage to potentially deleterious reactions of cement-aggregate combinations to compressive/flexural strengths.
