Evolution of recrystallization texture in non-oriented electrical steels during final annealing - Influence of shear stress after cold rolling

Abstract

The fabrication process of non-oriented electrical steels comprises hot rolling, annealing of the hot band (optional), cold rolling and final annealing. Starting from different hot band, quite distinct deformation substructures have been observed after cold rolling of ferritic FeSi steels. The recrystallization texture after annealing of the cold rolled material depends on the deformation structure obtained after cold rolling. In the present paper, a simple method to evaluate the energy stored during cold deformation of Fe-Si steels is presented. An estimate of the stored energy has then been made for various deformation modes (in-plane compression superimposed with shear stress). It is shown that, by adding a shear component, a more appropriate explanation of the experimental observed recrystallization textures may be obtained. The existence of shear components produces an inversion of the soft and hard orientations with respect to the case of a pure in-plane strain compression.