Texture Evolution of a 2.8 wt% Si Non-Oriented Electrical Steel during Hot Band Annealing

To optimize the magnetic properties of non-oriented electrical steels, it is necessary to carefully control all the stages of thermomechanical processing during the production of the steel sheets, since the microstructure and crystallographic texture at an early step will usually affect those at the subsequent steps. Many studies have shown that hot band annealing may have a positive effect on the texture of the final sheet, but it is not clear what are the optimal annealing conditions to obtain the desired final textures. In this study, the evolution of microtexture and microstructure of a 2.8 wt% Si non-oriented electrical steel during hot band annealing is studied by using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) techniques. A region of the hot-rolled sample was marked by micro-indents so that the same area could be examined at various annealing times (under the same temperature) to investigate the evolution of the microstructure and microtexture during recrystallization. In this way, the mechanisms of texture evolution was elucidated, and optimal annealing conditions can be determined.