Effect of sulphur and acid soluble aluminium content on grain oriented silicon steel

Abstract

The effect of sulphur (S) and acid soluble aluminium (Al_s) content on precipitation behaviours, microstructures and textures of hot rolled grain oriented silicon steels were investigated. The results showed that precipitates were mainly MnS and a little amount of MnS–AlN composite. Similar characteristics of precipitates, microstructures and textures were found in specimens containing similarly higher S content and different Al_s content. More fine precipitates, less recrystallisation and more and stronger Goss texture component were presented in specimen containing lower S content. It was not Al_s content but S content that played a key role during hot rolling. High proportion and intensity of Goss texture component were due to the effective inhibiting effect of finely and uniformly dispersed precipitates on dynamic recrystallisation.

Keywords:

• Hot rolled grain oriented silicon steel
• MnS
• AlN
• Microstructure
• Texture

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51104109) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant no. 2013M540609).