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The contrast of the lines seen in the micrograph is due to the etchant attacking the grain boundaries of the pearlite (i.e. the ferrite and cementite phases are too small to be seen).

In many grey cast irons the background matrix will be pearlite, although some alloying additions can prevent the tranformation of austenite to pearlite.

This micrograph is of a lower magnification. See also the DoITPoMS micrograph library entry.

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