The application of back-scattered electron imaging for characterization of pearlitic steels

The microstructures of pearlitic steel wire rods and steel wires are commonly characterized by secondary electron imaging (SEI) technique using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In this work, a back-scattered electron imaging (BSEI) method is proposed to determine the microstructures of undeformed and deformed pearlitic steels with nanometer scale pearlite lamellae. The results indicate that BSEI technique can characterize the pearlite lamellas veritably and is effective in quantitative measurement of the mean size of pearlite interlamellar spacing. To some extent, BSEI method is more suitable than SEI technique for studying undeformed and not severely deformed pearlitic steels.