This article begins with a description of indirect and direct semisolid metalworking processes. It then provides information on alloy compositions of common aluminum semisolid metalworking alloys and primary die-cast magnesium alloys in a tabular form. The article describes the macroscopic examination of defects, which occur in semisolid metalworking with illustrations. It discusses the macroscopic examination of gating systems and semisolid feedstocks. The article also provides information on feedstock microstructures, direct semisolid metalworking component microstructures, and indirect semisolid metalworking component microstructures of series 300 aluminum casting alloys and magnesium die-casting alloys.

This article describes the microstructure of copper alloys, including copper-zinc (brasses), bronzes, copper-nickel, and copper-nickel-zinc, and examines the effect of oxygen content on alloy phases observed in different product forms. The article also discusses inclusions, etchants, and the effect of composition and processing on grain structure and growth rates.

Computational modeling assists in addressing the issues of solid/liquid interface dynamics at the microlevel. It also helps to visualize the grain length scale, fraction of phases, or even microstructure transitions through microstructure maps. This article provides a detailed account of the general capabilities of the various models that can generate microstructure maps and thus transform the computer into a dynamic microscope. These include standard transport models, phase-field models, Monte Carlo models, and cellular automaton models.

This article discusses the principles of physical metallurgy and metallography of depleted uranium. It describes the techniques involved in the preparation of thin foils for transmission electron microscopy and illustrates the resulting microstructure of uranium and uranium alloys, with the aid of black and white images. The article also provides information on the applications of etching and examination of uranium alloys, at both macro and micro scales, in characterizing the grain structures, segregation patterns, inclusions, and the metal flow geometries produced by solidification and mechanical working processes.

This article describes the metallographic specimen preparation procedures for cast iron test samples, including mounting, grinding, polishing, and etching. It discusses the makeup and use of black-and-white and selective color etchants and where one might be preferred over the other. The article provides information on nearly 100 micrographs, discussing the microstructure of flake graphite in gray iron, nodular graphite in ductile iron, and temper graphite in malleable iron. It also examines the matrix microstructures of gray, ductile, compacted, and malleable cast iron samples.

This article describes the various specimen preparation procedures for lead, lead alloys, and sleeve bearings, including sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing, and etching. The microscopic examination and microstructures of lead and lead alloys are discussed. The article also provides information on the microstructures of sleeve bearing materials.

This article discusses the specimen preparation techniques for zinc and its alloys and zinc-coated specimens, namely, sectioning, mounting, grinding and polishing, and etching. It describes the characteristics of lead, cadmium, iron, copper, titanium, aluminum, magnesium, and tin, which are present in the microstructure of zinc alloys. The article also provides information on microexamination that helps to determine the dendrite arm spacing, as well as the grain size, grain boundaries, and grain counts.

Magnesium and its alloys are among the most difficult metals to prepare for metallographic examination. This article describes specimen preparation processes, including sectioning, mounting, grinding, and polishing. It discusses macro and microexamination techniques as well as related etching processes, including macroetching and color etching based on polarized light enhancement. The article concludes with an overview of the effects of alloying elements, including aluminum, beryllium, calcium, copper, iron, lithium, manganese, rare earth metals, silicon, silver, strontium, thorium, tin, zinc, and zirconium.

Zirconium, hafnium, and their alloys are reactive metals used in a variety of nuclear and chemical processing applications. This article describes various specimen preparation procedures for these materials, including sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing, and etching. It reviews some examples of the microstructure and examination for zircaloy alloys, hafnium, zirconium, and bimetallic forms.

This article explains how to prepare nickel-base alloys for metallographic examination and identifies related processing and imaging challenges. It describes sectioning, mounting, grinding, and polishing procedures along with alternative electropolishing processes. It also provides information on etching and examines the microstructure of Nickel 200, Nickel 270, Duranickel 301, Monel 400, Monel R-405, Monel K-500, and other nickel alloys.

This article provides a review of metallographic procedures and techniques for analyzing the microstructure of fusion welded joints. It discusses sample preparation, the use of backing plates, and common sectioning methods. It identifies the various types of defects that can occur in arc welded metals, organizing them according to the sectioning method by which they are observed. It describes the relationship between weld bead morphology and sectioning direction and its effect on measurement error. The article examines micrographs from stainless steel, aluminum, and titanium alloy joints, highlighting important details such as solidification and solid-state transformation structures and what they reveal about the welding process. Besides arc welding, it also discusses laser and electron beam welding methods, resistance and spot welding, and the welding of dissimilar metals.

This article discusses the specimen preparation of three types of cast and wrought heat-resistant alloys: iron-base, nickel-base, and cobalt-base. Specimen preparation involves sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing, and etching. The article illustrates the microstructural constituents of cast and wrought heat-resistant alloys. It describes the identification of ferrite by magnetic etching. The transmission electron microscopy examination of the fine strengthening phases in wrought alloys and bulk extraction in heat-resistant alloys are included. The article also reviews the gamma prime phase, gamma double prime phase, eta phase, laves phase, sigma phase, mu phase, and chi phase in wrought heat-resistant alloys.

This article explains how to prepare precious metal test samples for metallographic examination. It discusses cutting, mounting, grinding, polishing, and etching and addresses some of the challenges of working with small, relatively soft specimens. It includes dozens of example micrographs, comparing and contrasting the microstructural features of gold, platinum, iridium, palladium, and ruthenium-base alloys. It examines pure gold, intermetallic gold compounds, gold and platinum jewelry alloys, platinum-containing shape memory alloys, and alloys consisting of platinum, aluminum, and copper.

This article describes various procedures used in the metallographic preparation of niobium, tantalum, molybdenum, and tungsten alloys. It provides information on sectioning, grinding, mounting, polishing, and electrolytic etching as well as alternate procedures that have been used on refractory metals. The article presents and analyzes several micrographs, provides etchant formulas for various materials, and discusses the unique characteristics of rhenium and its alloys.

This article describes metallographic preparation and examination techniques for stainless steels and maraging steels. It presents a series of micrographs demonstrating microstructural features of these alloys. Procedures used to prepare stainless steels for macroscopic and microscopic examination are similar to those used for carbon, alloy, and tool steels. Cutting and grinding must be carefully executed to minimize deformation because the austenitic grades work harden readily. The high-hardness martensitic grades that contain substantial undissolved chromium carbide are difficult to polish while fully retaining the carbides. Unlike carbon, alloy, and tool steels, etching techniques are more difficult due to the high corrosion resistance of stainless steels and the various second phases that may be encountered. The microstructures of stainless steels can be quite complex. Matrix structures vary according to the type of steel, such as ferritic, austenitic, martensitic, precipitation hardenable, or duplex.

This article describes the specimen preparation steps for tin and tin alloys, and for harder base metals which are coated with these materials with illustrations. The steps discussed include sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing, and etching. The article provides information on etchants for tin and tin alloys in tabular form. It presents the procedure recommended for electron microscopy to determine the nature of the intermetallic compound formed by the reaction between tin or tin-lead coatings on various substrates. The article concludes with an illustration of the microstructures of tin-copper, tin-lead, tin-lead-cadmium, tin-antimony, tin-antimony-copper, tin-antimony-copper-lead, tin-silver, tin-indium, tin-zinc, and tin-zinc-copper systems.

This article introduces basic physical metallurgy concepts that may be useful for understanding and interpreting variations in metallographic features and how processing affects microstructure. It presents some basic concepts in structure-property relationships. The article describes the use of equilibrium binary phase diagrams as a tool in the interpretation of microstructures. It reviews an account of the two types of solid-state phase transformations: isothermal and athermal. The article discusses isothermal transformation and continuous cooling transformation diagrams which are useful in determining the conditions for proper heat treatment (solid-state transformation) of metals and alloys. The influence of the mechanisms of phase nucleation and growth on the morphology, size, and distribution of grains and second phases is also described.

This article describes the metallurgy and microstructure of high-performance cobalt-base alloys. It discusses metallographic preparation procedures, including sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing, etching, staining, and heat tinting. It examines the microstructure of cobalt alloys in cast, wrought, and powder metal forms, including magnetic alloys as well as several cobalt-base superalloys.

This article describes the fundamentals of titanium metallographic sample preparation. Representative micrographs are presented for each class of titanium alloys, including unalloyed titanium, alpha alloys, alpha-beta alloys, and beta titanium alloys. The article provides information on the macroexamination and microexamination for these alloys. It concludes with a discussion on the several metallographic techniques developed for specific purposes, such as recrystallization studies and microstructure/fracture topography correlations.

This article reviews various phases and constituents found in the microstructures of low-carbon and coated steels. It provides information on the criteria for selecting proper metallographic procedures. Techniques used to prepare metallographic specimens of low-carbon steels and coated steels, such as sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing, and etching, are discussed. The article also reviews the simple and proven manual sample preparation techniques of coated steel specimens.