Characterization of Microstructural Features in Stainless Steels

Fig. 1.1: Pattern Quality Map depicting the microstructure of a stainless steel sample; map was acquired using eFlash XS EBSD detector mounted on JSM IT200 SEM.

Mechanical properties of raw metals and alloys are controlled through various sequences of thermo-mechanical forming processes, e.g. rolling, forging, extrusion, etc done at room or high temperatures. EBSD is commonly used to quantify the deformation state of grains in these materials which would define their properties and, when necessary, refine the forming parameters to achieve the desired properties. ESPRIT 2 provides an intuitive interface and all means necessary for this type of analysis to be successful, such as grain misorientation maps, subsetting options based on local misorientation and crystallographic texture representation options.