Leica SP1600

The Leica SP1600 saw microtome is designed for cutting hard and brittle materials such as bone and teeth embedded in methyl methacrylate with or without implants with a maximum size of 35 mm in diameter. Implant materials such as steel, titanium or bioceramics cause no problems for the Leica SP1600 saw microtome. It is used in structural bone research laboratories, dental institutes and various industrial laboratories. The specimen is clamped in the center of a diamond-coated internal hole saw and pushed by a spring mechanism against the saw blade which rotates horizontally at a speed of 600 rpm, producing specimen slices of the desired thickness.

Key Features

• Horizontally rotating saw blade with internal hole (83 mm diameter)
• Saw blade with diamond coated cutting edge
• Saw blade thickness of 280µm ensures a relatively little material loss
• Rotation speed of the saw blade: 600 rpm
• Specimen advance effected by a spring
• Cylindrical specimen clamping device for specimen sizes from 6-30mm in diameter
• Specimen advance speed adjustable to the properties of the material by means of a hydraulic drive
• A built-in water cooling prevents overheating of the sample and carries the saw dust away. Thus the radial load is kept on an extremely low level deformation and damage of the specimen is avoided
• Morphology is not affected. This will facilitate microscopic investigation
• Ideal instrument for specimen preparation for the Leica SM2500 with Leica SP2600 (Ultramiller)

Detailed Description

Typical industrial application fields of the Leica SP1600 are:

Mineralogy and Geology
Industrial QC laboratories
Material research laboratories
Mineralogical and geological samples
Ceramics or porcelain
Glass-fiber reinforced plastics or other hard materials such as carbon fibers
Concrete

Slices of very hard materials can be prepared without destroying the morphology of the specimens for the use in light microscopical investigation and section thicknesses of approximately 30 microns can be achieved under optimal conditions. Most objects (such as resin embedded undecalcified bone or teeth) need a thickness of 80-100 µm for best results.

The Leica SP1600 is very often used as a pre-preparation instrument for the Leica SM2500 E with Leica SP2600 (Polycut with Ultramiller).

With the saw microtome, slices of about 100-500 microns thickness are prepared and finished to a thickness of about 20-30 microns for the investigation with the transmission light microscope using the Leica SP2600. (Limitation of the Leica SP2600: no titanium, steel or ceramic material should be used).

The operating principle behind the Leica SP1600 is based on a specimen holder which is guided extremely slowly towards the rotating cutting edge of the diamond-coated inner-hole saw blade. This preserves the morphology of the sample and offers ideal conditions for microscopic evaluation.