There are many indications that retained austenite in quenched plain carbon steels should be regarded as a face-centred tetragonally distorted structure and not face-centred cubic as heretofore.

Conditioning of steel by thermal or heat treatment relies on the different mechanical properties which are exhibited by the various structures present in plain carbon steels. Figure 1 illustrates the ...

INVESTIGATIONS are being carried out on tempered martensite in samples which have been previously subjected to very low temperature treatment. Two plain carbon steels were chosen containing 0·89 ...