Rolling and recrystallization texture of cold rolled IF steel: A study from low to high deformation

IF steel was homogeneously cold rolled between 30-95% reduction in thickness. The global cold rolling textures showed a gradual strengthening of both stable alpha and gamma components with increasing reduction until similar to80% after which gamma remained effectively unchanged but a components intensified until 95% reduction of thickness. Deformation Banded (DB) and also fragmented microstructures were found exclusively in gamma grains up until about 85% reduction after which DB was unexpectedly detected in cc grains, becoming significant after 95% reduction. This is in sharp contrast with the rather undifferentiated microstructures found in cc grains at low to medium levels of deformation. At lower reductions the annealing texture was a weak alpha, but the gamma component increased with rolling strain and became dominant at similar to80% rolling deformation. A peak type gamma recrystallisation texture with orientations ranging from {554}<225> to {111}<123> was found in the 95% rolled sample. In addition to this a {411}<148> component began to intensify, reading 5R at 95% reduction. Microstructural analysis showed that DB provided the lattice curvature for nucleation in the a fibre.