Normalised carbon steel

Low carbon steel with a microstructure consisting mostly of ferrite with the darker pearlite regions around the ferrite grains. Upon cooling the steel the ferrite forms initially, either on austenite grain boundaries or inclusions. This causes carbon to be partitioned into the austenite. Eventually the remaining austenite will be at the eutectoid condition and the transformation to pearlite will then take place. This sample has been normalised, removing the directionality caused by casting