Texture measurement of grain-oriented electrical steels after secondary recrystallization

The measurement of the final Goss texture sharpness in grain- oriented electrical steels is a challenging task due to the immense grain size ranging from millimeters to centimeters. Although, it is widely claimed in the literature that the orientation deviations from the ideal Goss orientation lie in the range of about 71 for conventional grain- oriented steel and in the range of about 31 for high permeability grades, no precise investigation with an appropriate statistical relevance is known to the authors. In this work, X- ray diffraction and large-area EBSD-based orientation microscopy (EBSD: electron backscatter diffraction) were used for texture analysis and orientation determination in order to estimate the Goss orientation spread of different grades of grain-oriented steel. Two production routes for grain-oriented steel sheets are compared, the conventional route and a low heating route with lower inhibitor strength. The results of the texture measurement demonstrate that both routes deliver comparable values of orientation deviations. Furthermore, it can be shown that small differences of the magnetic properties can be correlated with the texture sharpness of the material. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.