Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Boron Content Precipitates by FEG-SEM and EDS Methods

Abstract

The effect of the boron in steels is widely known as an element enhancing hardenability, but its role can also be related to the enamelability of steels. While the improvement of the hardenability is due to the solute boron, in the case of enameling grade steels the boron should be kept in form of precipitates 1. The hydrogen accumulated during processing and enameling diffuses to the metal/enamel interface and lead to the formation of the so called fish-scale failure. To prevent this it is needed an adequate type, number and dimension of precipitates which act as hydrogen traps hinder the free diffusion of the hydrogen in steel. The paper deals with the possibilities of investigation by scanning electron microscopy of the boron containing precipitates in the low carbon Al-killed steels apt for two side enamelling.