TEXTURE CONTROL AND THE DRAWABILITY OF alpha -BRASS.

Texture strengthening analyses for cubic metals predict enhanced deep drawing performance with left brace 110 right brace and/or left brace 111 right brace components in the plane of the sheet. Since left brace 110 right brace 112 direction is the primary texture in heavily cold rolled alpha -brass, an attempt was made to retain this texture through recovery of the cold rolled material at low temperatures. A second approach is suggested by the observation of the left brace 110 right brace texture in alpha -brass on annealing greater than equivalent to 600 degree C (873 degree K), and involves short time exposurs to limit grain size. It is found that low temperature recovery treatments, while partially retaining the rolling texture, produce a hard condition of low drawability. High temperature annealing produces appreciable left brace 110 right brace textural components only at grain sizes too large for many commercial applications. A potentially more tractable approach is discussed.