SSAT: Serial Section Automatic System

The SSAT has been set up at Istituto per i Sistemi Agricoli e Forestali del Mediterraneo - CNR, Ercolano NA, Italy. An high precision surface grinder Jones&Shipman 540X (already used to produce soil thin sections) is coupled with a lightning and cleaning system, and a digital image acquisition unit. This latter is a digital reflex camera Nikon D200 mounting AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D optic. UV (365nm) lightning is provided by two Spectroline lamps each one having two 8W tubes. It is possible to use also different illumination sources (eg. Visible, IR etc...) Cleaning system of the soil surface from cooling oil consists of a wiper blade driven by an air actuated piston. The whole working flow has been completely automated by interfacing each unit with an electronic board specifically designed and assembled. Functioning and control of the system has required a specific software.. Up to 2000 grinding and acquisition cycles can be autonomously performed. At each grinding cycle it is possible to control up to three different lightning devices also in combination. Hence up to 8 image acquisitions per cycle can be done allowing each one a different spectral response in order to identify also soil matrix features different from the simple solid pore phases.