Fabrication of high permeability non-oriented electrical steels by increasing 〈0 0 1〉 recrystallization texture using compacted strip casting processes

In this paper we will report on the application of the twin-roll casting technique to get a 2 mm thick material of Fe-3.2%Si alloy, which was finally hot rolled, cold rolled and annealed. After a mild hot rolling to a thickness of 1 mm and a mild cold rolling to a thickness of 0.35 mm, we obtained a high intensity of λ-fiber (〈0 0 1〉|| ND) and η-fiber (〈0 0 1〉|| RD) texture concentrated on cube ({0 0 1}〈0 1 0〉) component and a diminishing intensity of the γ-fiber (〈1 1 1〉|| ND) texture, and a large average grain size in the final processed material. The experimental results for the evolution of the microstructure and texture along the used processing routes were described within the paper in detail. The formation mechanism for the desired recrystallization textures were explained in terms of oriented nucleation, micro-growth selection, accumulated deformation stored energy, geometric softening and orientation pinning. It will be demonstrated that this new processing route using the compact strip casting offers the possibility to fabricate high permeability non-oriented electrical steels without additional fabrication steps like hot band annealing or two step cold rolling with intermediate annealing as in the case of conventional processing route.