Comparison of Precipitate Behaviors in Ultra-Low Carbon, Titanium-Stabilized Interstitial Free Steel Sheets under Different Annealing Processes

Abstract

Ultra-low carbon, titanium-stabilized interstitial free (ULC Ti-IF) steel sheets are widely used in the automobile industry because of excellent deep drawability. The annealing process is critical to their final property, and there are two different annealing processes used in industrial production of interstitial free (IF) steel sheets, namely batch annealing and continuous annealing. In this study, precipitation behaviors of titanium IF steels in the two annealing processes were investigated. Among the most common precipitates in titanium IF steels, that is, TiN, TiS, Ti4(CS)2, and TiC, the size and dispersion of TiN, TiS, and Ti4(CS)2 remained almost unchanged after either annealing process. Conversely, the average size of a TiC particle increased substantially after both annealing processes, while TiC after continuous annealing was larger than that after batch annealing due to the higher heating temperature of continuous annealing. Two new particles, FeTiP and (Ti, Mn)S, were also observed in the batch annealing process but not in continuous annealing. The structure of FeTiP and (Ti, Mn)S were studied, and furthermore the evolution of FeTiP precipitation was found to be closely related to recrystallization in batch annealing. Finally, the interrelation among processing parameters, precipitation behaviors, and final property was studied.