Floris Osmond (10 March 1849 – 18 June 1912) was a French scientist and engineer. He is known as one of the originators of metallography. He named several phases that occur in iron and steel microstructures such as martensite, after A. Martens, and cementite. He also provided the symbols α,β,γ and δ for the steel phases.
A list of publications was published shortly after his death.
Cementite (or iron carbide) is a compound of iron and carbon, more precisely an intermediate transition metal carbide with the formula Fe3C. By weight, it is 6.67% carbon and 93.3% iron. It has an orthorhombic crystal structure. It is a hard, brittle material, normally classified as a ceramic in its pure form, and is a frequently found and important constituent in ferrous metallurgy. While cementite is present in most steels and cast irons, it is produced as a raw material in the iron carbide process, which belongs to the family of alternative ironmaking technologies. The name cementite originated from the theory of Floris Osmond and J. Werth, in which the structure of solidified steel consists of a kind of cellular tissue, with ferrite as the nucleus and Fe3C the envelope of the cells. The carbide therefore cemented the iron.
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