With the recent interest in superaustenitic stainless steels and nickel-base alloys for materials of
construction in pharmaceutical applications, specifications have been created to assure the best possible
finish after electropolishing. These specifications require extensive microstructural examinations for the
presence of inclusions and secondary phases. By excluding these phases, electropolishing defects will
be minimized. It has been shown that banding of secondary phase will cause significant indications
during electropolishing, but there has been minimal evidence to determine the effect of other inclusions.
This paper will discuss some of the microstructural defects and their correlation to surface defects.
Furthermore, some of the causes for these microstructural defects will be discussed.