Effect of pre-annealing prior to cold rolling on the precipitation, microstructure and magnetic properties of strip-cast non-oriented electrical steels

A novel processing route involving strip casting, pre-annealing treatment, cold rolling and recrystallization annealing was applied to a Fe-2.6%Si steel to improve the magnetic properties. The impact of as-cast strip pre-annealing on the microstructure, texture, precipitation and magnetic properties were investigated by electron probe micro-analysis, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis, etc. It was found that the precipitation of second-phase particles during strip casting was restrained by rapid solidification. The absence of pre-annealing led to the occurrence of a large amount of 20-50 nm MnS precipitates in the final annealed sheets, which is responsible for fine grains and high core loss (4.01 W/kg) due to grain boundary pinning effect. Although the microstructure and texture of 900-1000 °C pre-annealed samples were similar to those of as-cast strip, significant grain coarsening together with the strengthening of λ-fiber texture was observed in the 1100 °C pre-annealed strips. In comparison with the case of as-cast strip, a higher amount of large-sized precipitates consisting of manganese sulfide and/or aluminum nitride occurred in matrix after pre-annealing. Correspondingly, in the final annealed sheets, the number density of precipitates with sizes smaller than 100 nm was substantially reduced, and 100-200 nm and 200-500 nm sized particles became more dominant in samples subjected to 30-min and 120-min pre-annealing treatments respectively. In addition, the average grain size of final annealed sheets increased with the pre-annealing temperature and time because of the weakened pining effect of coarsen precipitates. Ultimately, the magnetic induction of samples subjected to pre-annealing was slightly increased and ranged from 1.73 T to 1.75 T owing to the enhancement of {100} recrystallization texture, and simultaneously the core loss significantly decreased until a minimum of 3.26 W/kg was reached. Nevertheless, large number of 200-500 nm particles presented during pre-annealing for 120 min could weaken the improvement in core loss which is likely associated with the pinning effect on magnetic domain wall.