Texture development in cool deformed microalloyed steels

In this study, the effect of a small amount of deformation, i.e. cool deformation, on the microstructure changes and texture development in steels microalloyed with Mo, Nb, Cu were investigated. In addition, the effect of cooling rate, from 850 °C to 400 °C, prior to the cool deformation, on the deformation texture was studied. Results show that, deformation purely in the ferrite region would develop a predominantly {1 1 1}//ND texture. It was also found that the Nb cool deformed steel would remarkably increase the sharpness of the texture and results in a relatively sharper {1 1 1}〈1 2 1〉 component. Although Cu addition tends to decrease the intensity of the generated texture, it has nonetheless promoted the formation of {3 3 2}〈1 1 3〉 texture which is a favorable one in increasing the formability and toughness of steels. Increasing the cooling rate was found to have a deteriorating effect on the ferrite texture. As well, increasing the cooling rate has changed the texture components in the Mo steel, but has little or no effect on the Nb containing steels.