The morphology and distribution of retained ferrite in 304 austenite stainless steel(0.08C

1.37Mn

0.62Si

17.77Cr

9.09Ni)2.0 mm cast strip have been studied by chemical etching

colour metallurgraphy and electro- probe microanalyser(EPMA).Results showed that the ferrite in strip surface area presented rod-like morphology and the space between rod was ≤20 μm; in columnar dendrite area

the ferrite located at center of both primary and secondary dendrite arms and the space between ferrite secondary arms was ≤10 μm; in center of strip-equiaxed zone

the morpholo- gy and distribution of ferrite was related to semisolid formation mechanism of equiaxed grains.The ferrite in initially solidi- fied solid-phase particles presented curved dendrite and netlike morphology

while the ferrite in inter-space of initially solid- ified particles presented island morphology.