Development of a metallographic method for estimating the retained austenite in heat treated steels for the automotive industry / Mohd. Yunos Abu Hassan and Othman Saad

Retained austenite, which due to the service temperatures especially during use transforms into undesirable forms. It alters the mechanical properties of the material drastically. As this cannot be totally be avoided, the automobile manufacturers set a maximum tolerable retained austenite level for their products which inturn can only be
estimated via X-Ray diffraction techniques. This techniques involve a highly cost operation and equipments as well as technical know how personnel. This project is aimed at developing a low cost metallographical method of estimating the amount of retained austenite through a procedure.