The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Standard Reference Material (SRM) 482 was issued by The National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in 1969 i has been continuously available to the public for over 30 years [1]. The standard cons of a set of 6 wires. Each wire is approximately 0.5 mm in diameter and 5 cm long. Tl wires represent different compositions within the binary copper-gold alloy system. Included in the set are the two end member compositions, pure copper and pure gold, along with 4 alloys of nominal composition: Au80-Cu20, Au60-Cu40, Au40-Cu60 an< Au20-Cu80. SRM 482 was produced specifically for the purpose of microanalysis usi the electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA).
Recent metallographic preparation of these wires revealed the presence of surface blemishes on some of the prepared wires (Figure la). Two of the authors from differei affiliations recently prepared cross-sections of SRM wires from separately purchased sets. Each was unaware of the procedures used by the other.