Microstructural and crystallographic aspects of conventional and asymmetric rolling processes

Important technological properties of metal sheets, like formability and particularly deep drawability, are strongly affected by the crystallographic texture. The crystallographic orientation of the deformed grains strongly depends on the deformation path applied. The desirable {1 1 1}//ND texture, which is usually related to good deep drawability, cannot be formed in aluminium alloys by conventional rolling and annealing, although it is known to be a shear texture in face-centred cubic metals. Shear deformation in flat product can be imposed by asymmetric rolling (ASR) in which the diameters of working rolls are different, and in this technique could extend the possibilities for texture control of rolled sheet. The potential of the ASR process is modelled by crystallographic texture models and compared with experimental results. (C) 2008 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.