Microstructures
by George Langford, Sc.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1966
Copyright©
2005 by George Langford
Cast Irons, High Alloy Steels, and Superalloys - Lesson 1 - Sixth specimen
White cast iron at 500X etched
In order to recognize that this is a white cast iron (seen here at 500X; it is the chill zone of a railroad car wheel) you must notice that there is a distinct boundary around the massive white phase which separates it from the ferrite in the pearlite.  The pearlite was formerly the austenite component of the eutectic microconstituent, and the massive white phase is cementite.




Specimen 7 is a beginning failure
analysis of a Meehanite casting.