Hot direct rolling in ferrite region in extra low‐carbon steel

Abstract

For the first time, hot direct rolling was applied in ferrite region in the mill and the resulting quality of the cold rolled and annealed sheet steel was as good as that hot direct rolled in austenite region with respect to microstructure and mechanical properties. In case of ferrite phase rolling, microstructure of the hot strip reveals abnormal grains and deformation bands in the grains, and elongation and r value are not so good as those rolled in the austenite phase. However, these abnormal grains left no traces and appeared to be equiaxed grains like the austenite phase rolled microstructure after 75 % cold rolling and continuous annealing at 830°C. This is attributed to the deformation bands which provide nucleation sites for recrystallization during annealing so that recrystallization occurs uniformly in the matrix. (111) texture was well developed and r value thus appeared high.