Thermomechanical Processing for Recovery of Desired $$ {\left\langle {001} \right\rangle } $$ Fiber Texture in Electric Motor Steels

A processing route has been developed for recovering the desired λ fiber in iron-silicon electrical steel needed for superior magnetic properties in electric motor application. The λ fiber texture is available in directionally solidified iron-silicon steel with the \( {\left\langle {001} \right\rangle } \) columnar grains but was lost after heavy rolling and recrystallization required for motor laminations. Two steps of light rolling each followed by recrystallization were found to largely restore the desired fiber texture. This strengthening of the \( {\left\langle {001} \right\rangle } \) fiber texture had been predicted on the basis of the strain-induced boundary migration (SIBM) mechanism during recrystallization of lightly rolled steel from existing grains of near the ideal orientation, due to postulated low stored energies. Taylor and finite element models supported the idea of the low stored energy of the λ fiber grains. The models also showed that the λ fiber grains, though unstable during rolling, only rotated away from their initial orientations quite slowly.