Influence of Hot Rolling Finishing Temperature on Texture and Ridging Resistance in Stabilized Ferritic Stainless Steels

Abstract

A systematic study is conducted on a 17% Cr dual stabilized ferritic stainless steel (FSS) to study the evolution of texture during hot rolling and its effect on ridging resistance after cold rolling and annealing. Hot rolling is conducted on a 4‐high laboratory rolling mill with finishing temperatures in the range of 1000–810 °C to cover the evolution of microtexture under both conventional hot rolling conditions and when using low finishing temperatures. Subsequently, the hot‐rolled coils are cold rolled and annealed to the same final thickness. The microtextures of the samples are evaluated at each process step using scanning electron microscopy combined with electron backscattered diffraction (SEM‐EBSD). Lowering the hot rolling finishing temperature results in the formation of intragranular shear bands, which strengthens the γ‐fiber in the texture after subsequent annealing of the hot‐rolled material. After cold rolling to a reduction of 78% followed by final annealing, the microtexture in the final product correlates with the microtexture after hot rolling. The resistance to ridging in stabilized FSS improves by lowering the finishing temperature during hot rolling. This study shows the importance of the hot rolling process conditions in improving the texture inherited from the casting of FSS.