Micrograph 279 and full record
- Micrograph no
- 279
- Brief description
- Fe, C 2, Mn 0.7 (wt%) steel, quenched, producing martensite and cracking
- Keywords
- alloy , carbon, iron, martensite , metal, quenching , steel
- Categories
- Metal or alloy
- System
- Fe-C-X
- Composition
- Fe, C 0.55, Mn 0.65 (wt%)
- Standard codes
- BS 070M55, formerly En 9
- Reaction
- Processing
- Quenched
- Applications
- Sample preparation
- Nital
- Technique
- Reflected light microscopy
- Length bar
- 200 μm
- Further information
- This steel was quenched from the austenite phase field too rapidly for carbon to diffuse out and form cementite. This resulted in the formation of the brittle martensite phase. This phase is unable to accommodate volume changes plastically and may therefore fail, nucleating cracks as seen in this sample. The different colours in the micrograph are an artefact of the etching process.
- Contributor
- Dr R F Cochrane
- Organisation
- Department of Materials, University of Leeds
- Date
- 04/09/02
- Licence for re-use
- Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
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