Formation of a crystallographically oriented colony of products of eutectoid decomposition in the process of plastic deformation of steel by drawing

Methods of transmission electron microscopy and EBSD analysis have been used to study the evolution of the structural state of a eutectoid steel in the process of plastic deformation by drawing. It has been established that the reason for steel embrittlement is in the formation in the former grains of the high-temperature phase of a specific element of the structure, namely, a crystallographically oriented colony of products of eutectoid decomposition, including a conglomerate of morphological colonies with a common orientation along the cleavage plane of one of the constituents of the eutectoid. The process of its formation means multiple changes in the scale of the structure and, therefore, increase in the temperature threshold of the material brittleness.