Using EBSD to Investigate Steel Microstructures

Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) is a powerful microanalysis characterization tool. In this webinar, its applications to analyze and understand the microstructure of different steel alloys will be presented. EBSD can quickly and easily measure both the crystallographic orientation and phase with nanometer-scale spatial resolution. This information can be used to investigate the prior austenite grain size, the fraction of retained austenite, and the degree of deformation within a material. For additively manufactured steel alloys, EBSD can reveal the complex microstructures that develop over large spatial length scales to help optimize build parameters. EBSD can also be combined with chemical information collected via Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) to measure phases more accurately. Examples of using this information in nitrided and oxidized steel will be presented. Finally, recent developments in EBSD technology and how they can improve these measurements will also be discussed.