Texture Adjustment of Hot-Rolled Fe-1.6 wt% Si Non-oriented Electrical Steel Sheet by Annealing Processes

In the present work, the effect of pre-annealing on the recrystallized texture of hot-rolled Fe-1.6 wt% Si non-oriented electrical steel was investigated. Vickers hardness test, optical microscope, and electron backscatter diffraction were used to investigate the changes in the average hardness, microstructure, and texture caused by pre-annealing of hot-rolled strips. It was found that the texture successively changed from a near-random distribution to {116} < 151 > texture and near-{001} < 140 > texture depending on pre-annealing treatments. Also, there was almost no effect on the grain size, and the average grain size of the normalized bands was 125 mu m Besides, the texture and magnetic properties of the final products under different pre-annealing treatments were also detected. It was found that the sample obtain a strong Cube texture by pre-annealing. Meanwhile, the magnetic properties are also got an improvement by pre-annealing. In a word, this method may provide a possibility to obtain an ideal grain size and texture simultaneously.

Automated summary

The effect of pre-annealing on the recrystallized texture of hot-rolled Fe-1.6 wt% Si non-oriented electrical steel was investigated. It was found that pre-annealing treatments caused the texture to change from a near-random distribution to {116} < 151 > texture and near-{001} < 140 > texture. The grain size remained almost unchanged, with an average size of 125 μm in the normalized bands. Furthermore, the pre-annealing process improved the magnetic properties of the material.