AbstractThe investigation was carried out on several laboratory steels with various contents of carbon, manganese, aluminium, and sulphur. The samples were cast in a metallic mould, stripped at ~1300°C, and subjected to various heat treatments. The influence of manganese, carbon, and aluminium on sulphur solubility at solidification was determined by direct electron probe microanalysis. The temperature at which the cooling from solidification was interrupted has virtually no influence on the size of intergranular particles. The size of particles depends on the content of manganese, carbon, and aluminium in steel, while a prolonged isothermal annealing has a very limited effect. Intergranular particles are smaller in steel with transformation structure than in steel with solidification structure. No gradient of sulphur was found in grain boundary areas, it is concluded that intergranular particles do not originate from sulphur in solid solution in the interior of solidification grains.MST/589