Effect of Cold-rolling Reduction on the Microstructure and Texture of a Continuously Annealed Ti-IF Steel

According to the process of a continuous hot-dip galvanizing line, salt bath annealing simulation was conducted to study the evolution of microstructure and textures of acommercially produced Ti-IF steel during cold-rolling and annealing by means of optical microscopy and X-ray texture measurement with emphasis on the effect of cold-rolling reduction on the microstructure and the textures.The results showed that as the cold-rolling reduction increases from 60% to 90%, the textures along α fiber skeleton are constantly enhanced and {223}<110> and {114}<110> tended to be the main textures.On the other hand, {111}<011> and {111}<112> texture along γ fiber skeleton are also improved.The ferrite grain size after annealing was refined from ASTM No.9.0 to No.10.5.The tested steel still exhibited stronger {223}<110> and {114}<110> textures and the {111} texture tends to be increased with the cold-rolling reduction.The cold-rolling reduction should be kept above 80% in order to obtain strong {111} texture.