[en] Steel has continued to develop its status as a lightweight construction material for the design of vehicle bodies, most recently with the development of multi-phase steel. With a specific mixture of different phases in the steel microstructure, multi-phase steel combines high stability with good forming capacity. The characterisation of the complex structure of the multi-phase steel represents a challenge for metallurgists. For some years a new generation of X-ray diffractometers with two-dimensional (area) detectors and apparatus for local dissolved measurements are available to customers. This paper reports the applications and advantages of the modern X-ray diffractometry method. (copyright 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

[en] The influence of rapid quenching on the phase formation of Cu-Si alloys was investigated for silicon contents between 10 and 30 at.%. Rapid quenching leads to formation of different meta-stable states depending on the chemical composition. High temperature phases η, δ and κ can be preserved at room temperature. The formation of the room temperature phase ε can be suppressed by rapid quenching from the melt. The crystal structure of the high temperature phases was analysed by X-ray powder diffraction. Annealing of the rapidly quenched alloys at T = 500 ^oC leads to the transformations of the meta-stable phases. The equilibrium states exhibit phase compositions, which are in agreement with the generally accepted phase diagram