Examples include stainless steel, soft and medium hard steels

Description:

Class 5 steels are ferrous alloys of iron containing relatively low concentrations of carbon (<2%). Steels also have a wide range of properties due to their ability to be heat treated and annealed. Depending upon the carbon concentration and other alloying elements, the microstructure of steel can be modified by heating, quenching and stress relief (annealing). Common microstructures include pearlite and ferrite for slow cooled low carbon steels and martensite for fast cooled high carbon steels. Pearlite and ferrite are relatively soft and ductile, whereas martensite is hard and brittle.

Preparation Challenge:

Metallographic specimen preparation is relatively straight forward.