The 8th Pacific Rim International Congress on Advanced Materials and Processing

Edited by: Fernand Marquis

TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2013

EVOLUTION OF MICROSTRUCTURES AND TEXTURE OF 1.3%SI

NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL IN THE TWIN-ROLL STRIP
CASTING PROCESS

YuanXiang Zhang, YunBo Xu, Yang Wang, GuoDong Wang

State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University; Heping Qu,Wenhua Street;
Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, P.R. China, yunboxu@126.com

Key wordsTwin-roll strip casting, non-oriented electrical steel, microstructure, texture

Abstract
In this work, the influence of casting rollers which had different thermal abilities on microstructure and
texture of 1.3%Si non-oriented electrical steel was investigated in a twin-roll strip casting process. The
cooling capacity of copper rollers is stronger than that of steel ones, and the difference of heat transfer
capacities had an obviously effect on the solidification structure and texture. The results show that the
microstructures with an average grain size of ~60-200m and ~120-320m could be respectively
obtained in strips under both copper rollers and steel rollers conditions when the melt superheats were
in the range of 30 to 50. There was a relatively random and diffuse texture in strips under copper
rollers condition compared to the one under steel rollers condition, which lead to the occurrence of
relatively weak Goss, Cube and -fiber in the annealed sheet.

Introduction
Non-grain oriented silicon steels which are widely used in manufacturing of electrical machinery cores
require high magnetic permeability and low core loss [1-3].The twin-roll strip casting is a novel
advanced and energy-efficient technology, which eliminates the continuous casting and hot rolling and
supplies a steel strip directly which has the same thickness as that of hot-rolled product[4-6]. The
strip-casting 3~6%Si electrical steels have been reported by many metallurgists [7-8]. They usually
focus on the characterization of the texture and solidification structure of the as-cast strips. However,
the influence of initial grain size and solidification structures of as-cast strips on the evolution of
microstructure and texture are as yet unclear.
The casting parameters play an important role on affecting the solidification structure and grain
orientation [7,9-10]. In the authors early work [11], the strip casting process provides favorable
conditions to control the microstructure of 1.3%Si-Fe 2.5mm strip by setting the superheat of melt. In
this study, the effect of thermal ability of casting roller on the microstructure and texture of as-cast and
finally annealed strips was investigated, respectively.

Materials and Experimental Procedure

The tested non-oriented silicon steel contains <0.0050%C, 1.28%Si, 0.32%Mn, 0.24%Al, <0.0040%S,
N, O. The casting experiments were carried out on using a vertical type laboratory twin-roll caster, as
reported in the early work [11]. The non-oriented silicon steel for given components was melted in an
induction furnace and poured into a tundish, and then the molten steel flowed into the water-cooled

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internally casting rollers through a nozzle under the Ar shield. The cast rollers were made of copper and
cast steel. The thickness and width of the as-cast strips are 1.6mm and 110mm, respectively. The
as-cast strips were directly air-cooled to room temperature. The melt superheat measured by a
thermo-detector was controlled to be 30, 40, and 50, respectively.
The as-cast strips were picked in order to remove the oxide scale, and then cold rolled into thickness of
0.35mm by a reversing mill at a rolling speed of 0.35m/min. Finally, the cold rolled strips were
annealed at 950 for 5min in 30%H2+70%N2 atmosphere. Optical microscopy specimens were
applied on longitudinal and etched with 4%nital for observation. The orientation distribution function
(ODF) of the as-cast strips was measured by the OIM 4000 Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD)
system. The macro-texture of annealed sheets was done and analyzed by a Bruker D8 Discover X-ray.

Results and discussion

Solidification structures of cast strip
Figure 1 shows the solidification structure, composed of equiaxed grains, of the as-cast strips obtained
by copper rollers at different melt superheats. With the increase of the melt superheat, the average grain
size of the as-cast strip evidently changes from 60m to 200m. And it is observed that the
microstructure is remarkably different compared with other strips when the superheat is ~30, and the
deformed structure was retained from the stage of solidifying and rolling. That is because the thickness
of solidification shell is great than the one of roll gap for the high heat transmission capacity of copper
casting rollers.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig.2 Optical micrographs for the tested cast-strips at different melt superheats produced by copper roll, longitudinal
section; (a) 30; (b) 40;(c) 50

(a) (b) (c)

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Fig.2 Optical micrographs for the tested cast-strips at different melt superheats produced by steel rollers, longitudinal
section; (a) 30; (b) 40;(c) 50
Figure 2 shows the solidification structures of the as-cast strips obtained from steel rollers at different
melt superheats. With the increase of the melt superheat from 30 to 50, the average grain size of
the as-cast strip evidently changes from 120m to 320m. The microstructures of strips produced by
steel rollers are distinctively different from the ones produced by copper rollers, e.g., they have coarse
grains and somewhat straight grain boundaries. Obviously, the coefficient of thermal conductivity of
the casting rollers is the main influential factors in this case. Copper has a significantly higher thermal
conductivity than cast steel, and the corresponding coefficients of thermal conductivities are 377J/m
and 49J/m, respectively. At the same superheat of molten steel, the coefficient of thermal
conductivity strongly affects grain nucleation and growth, as shown in Fig.1 and Fig.2. Because the
amount of nucleation is less at the 50 of melt superheat under copper rollers condition (Fig. 1c), the
ferrite grain is almost equiaxed, and little fine grain is observed in the as-cast strip. Moreover, a few
columnar grains microstructure can be observed in 1.6mm strips produced by steel rollers (Fig. 2b and
Fig. 2c), which is different from the 2.5mm strip obtained in the early work[11].

Texture of cast strip

Fig.3 displays the ODF 2=45 sections at two as-cast strips produced by different casting rollers at
30melt superheat. It is obvious that the as-cast strip with higher cooling condition has a weak and
diffuse texture, as shown in Fig.3a. With the decrease of the thermal abilities of casting rollers, crystal
orientation of grain rotated to {100} and {110} crystallographic plane, as shown in Fig.3b, the texture
is characterized by {100} component (-fiber) with the peak at {100}<0-31> and {100}<0-1-6> and
{110} component with the peak closed to {110} <001>. The texture of strip is affected by temperature
gradient, deformation, grains growth and phase transformation [12, 13]. In this research, temperature
gradient is the main reason for the forming of {100} component, while the {110} component may be a
type deformed texture at a high temperature. Under the copper rolls condition, melt solidified faster
than steel roll condition, so the trend of selective growth affected by temperature gradient of grains was
not obvious, which explains the phenomenon of diffuse texture in strips.
(a) 1
62

95

36

(b)
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4.

5.
70
44

68
2.
4.

3.
75
2.

78

0.80
1.
91

11

96
1.

2.

3.

1.60
24
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79

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2.

3.

84
3.
3.20
4.00
85 4.80
47

02

0.
1.

3.

5.60
6.40

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 Fig. 3 2=45ODF sections of 1.3%Si as-cast strip at 30superheat with different casting rollers(1/4H)
(a) copper rollers; (b) steel rollers

Texture of finally annealed sheets

Initial grain size and texture of as-cast strip has an important effect on the microstructure and texture
of finally annealed sheets. It means that textures of finally annealed sheets were decided by the
solidification structure and texture. The texture of 1/4H of annealed sheets of cast-strips produced by
different casting rollers at 30superheat was shown in Figure 4. It can be seen that Goss (f(g)=3.6),
Cube (f(g)=2.37) and weak -fiber exist in annealed sheets of cast-strips produced by copper rollers, as
shown in Fig.4a. By contrast, stronger Goss (f(g)=5.3) and Cube (f(g)=3.63) textures are displayed in
the other annealed sheet, meanwhile, the -fiber component is also significantly enhanced, as shown in
Fig.4b.
(a) (b)
1

42
37

63
2.

2.
3.
18
2.
29
1.
34
1.

16
2.

23

03

96
08
1.

1.

0.
2.

0.80
79

22

42
65
1.

2.

2.
1.

1.60
06

83

2.40
2.

2.

3.20
4.00
11
2. 4.80
5.60
6.40
Fig. 4 ODF 2=45sections of for the finally annealed sheets of cast-strips produced by different rollers at 30
(1/4H) (a) copper roller; (b) steel roller
The mechanism of the nucleation and growth of Goss and Cube oriention grains is explained by
oriented nucleation theory, what claims that the nucleation with Goss or Cube is obvious faster than
other orientations. Park reported that shear band is the place for new Goss and Cube grains nucleation
and growth [14], and the coarse grain is in favor of the forming shear bands during cold rolling in Fe-Si
alloy [15]. In this result, the weak and random annealed texture, as shown in Fig. 4a, cannot be fully
explained by nucleation within shears band in fine grains sample, and the initial texture is also one of
important influencing factors. And the weak textures were formed in annealed sheets, which could be
attributed to the inherence characteristics of initial texture. In addition, it is also observed from Fig4.b
that some {110} components can be retained from strip casting until after cold rolling and annealing.
The initial grain size and orientation of as-cast strip will determine the deformation energy of matrix in
cold rolled sheets, which has an important effect on the microstructure evolution of deformed grains.
There are few in-grain shear bands in the cold sample with fine initial grain, as shown in Fig.5a.
However, the coarse grain of cast strip is beneficial to the forming of in-grain shear bands during cold
rolling, as shown in Fig.5b, which is the reason for the increasing of Goss and Cube components. The

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final texture of annealed sheet with coarse initial grains produced by steel rollers is mainly
characterized by the relatively strong -fiber.
(a) (b)

Fig.5 Optical micrographs of the cold rolling specimens with different initial grain size, (79.2% reduction rate)
(a) copper roller with 30 superheat (60m); (b) steel roller with 50 superheat (320m)

Conclusions
(1) The melt thermal ability of casting roll strongly affects the solidification structure of 1.3%Si
non-oriented silicon steel strip processed by twin-roll strip casting. With the increases of melt
superheat from 30 to 50, the microstructures with an average grain size of approximately
60m to 200m and approximately 120m to 320m were obtained in as-cast strips produced by
steel rollers and copper rollers, respectively.
(2) The melt thermal ability of casting roll also plays an important role on the evolution of texture of
the as-cast strip. A weak and random texture can be obtained in the as-cast strip produced by copper
rolls, which means that strong nucleation and growth of {100} grains is suppressed to some extent.
(3) The weak and random initial texture, obtained in as-cast strip with copper roller at a low superheat
of melt, may affect the intensity and distribution of finally annealed texture. A weak and random
texture was obtained in the annealed sheet produced by as-cast strip with copper roller at a low
superheat of melt. And some {110} components were also retained from the as-cast strip.

Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.
U1260204,51174059,51004035), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
(N110407003), the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China, (No. 2011CB606306).

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