Retention of the (001) Fiber Texture for Fe-Si Electric Motor Steels

The ideal sheet texture for electric motor steels, the fiber, with (001) normal to the rolling plane, that can be produced by directional solidification, is largely lost by the required heavy rolling reduction and recrystallization needed to produce thin motor laminations. However by two successive light rolling reductions, followed in each case by recrystallization, the desired texture was largely recovered. Taylor and finite element modeling supported the hypothesis for this successful processing: the low Taylor factor of the fiber grains. Although starting from similar grain sizes, the second light deformation produced a much larger recrystallized grain size than did the first light deformation. This result suggests that a lower average Taylor factor in the structure before deformation, resulting in lower stored energy, can increase the recrystallized grain size.