Role of cold rolling texture and heating rate on final texture and magnetic induction in electrical steels

With increasing heating rate, the final main texture of inhibitor-free 3% Si–Fe alloy strips was roughly changed from the {110}〈001〉 texture to the {110}〈uvw〉 + the {110}〈uvw〉 texture and subsequently to the {100}〈uvw〉 + the {111}〈uvw〉 texture, while magnetic induction decreased from 2.03 to 1.40 T. Such a dependence on heating rate is deeply related to the change in surface segregation kinetics of sulfur that governs the surface-energy-induced selective growth. The strips cold-rolled without any lubricant showed mainly the {110}〈001〉 and the {110}〈uvw〉 grains after final annealing, irrespective of heating rate. The final texture of the strips cold-rolled with a lubricant was very sensitive to the heating rate. This may be due to the nucleation behavior of the {110} nuclei that are formed from two kinds of cold rolling textures.