Effect of Boron on Morphology of Inclusions in Tire Cord Steel

B2O3 was added to tire cord steel during refining in a carbon tube furnace. The influence of boron on the deformability of oxide inclusions was studied by metallographic and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations. The melting points of boron-bearing compound oxide inclusions were calculated using Factsage software. The results showed that the main inclusion was a boron-bearing compound oxide and the deformation properties of the inclusions were clearly improved by adding B2O3. As the boron content was increased from 0.0046% to 0.039%, the proportion of long strip type inclusions changed slightly and the number of inclusions decreased. The low-melting point areas of the MnO-SiO2-Al2O3 and CaO-SiO2-Al2O3 ternary system increased with the addition of B2O3. Moreover, the area increased with the increase of B2O3 content. Clear improvements in the deformation ability of the inclusions occurred when the B2O3 mass percent rose to 5% in the CaO-SiO2-Al2O3 inclusion system and to 10% in the MnO-SiO2-Al2O3 inclusion system.