316 powder metallurgy (PM) stainless steel, leveraging its advantages of corrosion resistance, high strength, and near-net shaping, has been widely applied in scenarios such as automotive engine valve cores, medical device implants, chemical corrosion-resistant valves, offshore platform fasteners, and electronic equipment structural components.

The core purpose of its sample preparation is not only to present the microtopography but also to verify whether the material meets the requirements of service condition strength and corrosion resistance by observing pore distribution, grain size, and inclusion content—providing direct basis for production process optimization and product quality control.

For the preparation of 316 PM stainless steel samples, the following scheme is shared for reference:

1️⃣ Grind flat with P400 metallographic sandpaper;

2️⃣ Fine grinding with POS disc + 9μm PD-WT polishing fluid;

3️⃣ Polish with SC-JP polishing cloth + 3μm PD-WT polishing fluid;

4️⃣ Polish with ET-JP polishing cloth + 1μm PD-WT polishing fluid;

5️⃣ Perform final polishing with ZN-ZP polishing cloth + SO-A439 50nm polishing fluid.

After polishing, electrolytic etching is conducted with 10% oxalic acid aqueous solution at 6V for 50 seconds.

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