Color metallography of stainless steels by tint etching

The color metallography by tint etching allows the identification and quantification by optical microscopy of phases and constituents present in the microstructure of a great number alloys. The principle of this technique consists of the build up of an interference film on the alloy surface as consequence of electrochemical reactions between the metallic surface and the tint etching reagent. The application of the tint etching to the metallographic analysis of stainless steels enable the identification and quantification, by image analysis, of secondary phases, as ferrite in the austenitic stainless steels, or secondary austenite and sigma phase in the duplex stainless steels.