In fact, you will find quite a bit of application in those areas, mostly
for topographic studies (what else can you do with inanimate objects :) ;) )
Confocal has been used for many years for examining semi-conducter
manufacturing processes and in QC.  It has also been applied in the dental
arena to examine interfaces between natural materials (teeth) and
manufactured materials (resins, implants).  In that application,
investigators are often interested in penetration of the resin and are
doing imaging relatively deep into the material.  And, as one might expect
along similar lines, it has been used to examine prosthesis-bone
interactions.  I'm sure there are many other applications, but I'm one of
those BIO guys...
Rob Palmer
CEB/UT

>Hello Fellow Confocalists,
>
>My name is William McMillan and I am the Manager of the Quantitative
>Microscopy Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
>Newcastle, Australia.
>
>We have recently bought a reflecting light Laser Scanning Confocal
>Microscope (Optiscan F900E), which I use for examining samples such as wear
>surfaces, glass fibres, particles (agglomeration, etc), emulsions, and so on.
>
>I have been a subscriber to this list for about five months now, and I was
>wondering if there were any LSCM operators out there who use confocal
>microscopy to predominantly look at materials science and engineering
>samples.  I know the majority of confocal work is in the bio-medical field,
>but I thought it would be of interest to find out if confocal microscopy was
>making a big splash in other fields.
>
>Kind regards
>
>William McMillan  I
>-----------------
>William McMillan
>Manager - Quantitative Microscopy Laboratory
>Department of Mechanical Engineering
>University of Newcastle
>Callaghan
>NSW 2308
>
>ph: (02) 4921 6206
>fax: (02) 4921 6946
>e-mail: [log in to unmask]