Evaluation of Annealing Texture in IF and EDD Steel Sheets

Abstract

The textural and microstructural studies of cold-rolled-batch annealed (CRBA) interstitial free-Ti (IF-Ti) stabilized steel and extra deep drawing steel (EDD) produced at Tata Steel have been investigated. In the IF steels, α-fiber has been found to be strong even after batch annealing, which is not desirable for deep drawing applications. The presence of a stronger recrystallization texture in the surface region rather than in the central region accounts for the deformation and orientation path history of cold-rolling texture components and the texture inherited from hot band. The hot band of IF steel has been observed to have mixture of grain structure along with inhomogeneous texture throughout the thickness. While the inhomogeneity in EDD steel, pancake grain structure in the through-thickness direction, milder pancake grains in the transverse section, and polygonal grain structure in the longitudinal section have led to the inference that the undesirable α -fiber is present. This observation has been explained by the early precipitation of AlN during coiling. The results of all the steels have been explained with the help of the orientation distribution functions, volume fraction of alpha and gamma fiber along with their components, volume fraction ratio (γ /α), and the microstructure. The analysis of the present data suggests that the deep drawability of both steels can be improved by modifying the hot-rolling and annealing parameters.