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JFE Steel Corporation, Steel Research Laboratory, Kawasaki-cho, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-0835 Japan.
(Received on August 28, 2012; accepted on September 20, 2012)
It is known that high r-value hot-rolled steel sheets can be produced by hot rolling in the ferrite region
with lubrication, whereas dynamic recovery easily occurs during ferritic rolling, in which texture formation
is quite different from that in cold rolling, when the quantity of recovery increases. In this study, one pass
hot rolling in the ferrite region was conducted at higher temperatures, using various rolling temperatures
and rolling reductions, with two types of ULC steels, 0.016% Nb and 0.023% Ti, and their recrystallization
behaviors immediately after hot rolling were investigated. The Ti-bearing steel easily recrystallized; recrys-
tallization occurred even at 1 323 K with a low rolling reduction of 30%. The γ -fiber strength reached its
maximum at around 50% rolling reduction at 1 273 K with the Nb-bearing steel and 1 323 K with the Ti-
bearing steel. On the other hand, in high temperature rolling of the Ti-bearing steel, the γ -fiber did not
develop, independent of rolling reduction. These changes corresponded to the recrystallized fraction, in
that the strength of the γ -fiber decreased when recrystallization occurred immediately after rolling. The
deformation microstructures were different in each grain and even in each part of the same grain. New
recrystallized-like grains were produced in the domain where distortions were particularly concentrated.
Recrystallization seemed to be the result of various mechanisms, as some recrystallized grains were
formed by a bulging mechanism, whilst others were surrounded by high angle grain boundaries.
and 0.016% Nb-bearing IF steels, were investigated in this ferritic hot rolling is shown in Fig. 1 for the Nb-bearing IF
study. The chemical compositions of the samples used is steel and in Fig. 2 for the Ti-bearing IF steel. The rolling
shown in Table 1. The atomic ratios, (Ti*/C), and (Nb/C) temperatures were 1 073 K and 1 123 K for both steels.
are 1.99, and 1.03, where Ti* is the effective Ti content; Deformed grains elongated along the rolling direction with
Ti*=Ti-(47.8/14)N. As shown in the table, the atomic ratio increasing rolling reduction, especially in the Nb-bearing IF
of the Ti-bearing IF steel is roughly two times higher than steel. A heavily etched region exists in the deformed micro-
that of the Nb-bearing IF steel. In specimen preparation, structure. It is assumed that deformation by ferritic rolling
50 kg vacuum melted ingots were forged to a thickness of varied with each grain depending on the crystal orientation.
20 mm, and the slabs were reheated to 1 523 K for 1 hr and Equiaxed small grains are observed with increasing rolling
hot rolled to 8 mm with a finishing temperature of about reduction. The distribution of such recrystallized-like equi-
1 173 K and then air-cooled. Sheets were cut and again heat- axed grains is not uniform, especially in the initial stage of
ed to two temperatures, 1 073 K and 1 123 K, with a holding recrystallization, such as at 76% reduction at 1 123 K with
time of 10 min, and then hot rolled at the same temperature the Nb-bearing IF steel, and the recrystallized grains seem to
as the reheating temperature. The roll diameter was 710 mm, be distributed along the rolling direction. In the Ti-bearing IF
and the rolling speed was 1 000 mpm. The delivered sheet steel rolled at 1 073 K, equiaxed grains appear to form under
thicknesses were 5.60, 3.85, 2.80, and 1.95 mm, which were a lower rolling reduction condition, and at a higher reduc-
achieved by varying the rolling reduction in one-pass roll- tion of 76%, almost the entire microstructure is occupied by
ing. The corresponding rolling reductions are 30%, 52%, such grains with lower dislocation density. Moreover the
65%, and 76%, respectively. After hot rolling, the hot bands deformed grains cannot be observed even at 30% reduction
were immediately water-quenched. The distance between at 1 123 K in the Ti-bearing IF steel, although the grain sizes
the mill and the water-quenching section was about decrease with increasing rolling reduction.
200 mm. The hot-rolled sheets were investigated by optical The microstructure in the intermediate stage of recrystal-
microscope observation, Vickers hardness testing, X-ray lization under differential interference contrast is shown in
texture measurement, and electron back scattering diffrac- Fig. 3 for Nb-bearing hot-rolled sheets with a rolling reduc-
tion (EBSD). EBSD was conducted in the normal-direction tion of 76% at 1 073 K (a) and 1 123 K (b). A deformed
(ND) – rolling-direction (RD) section using a step size of structure is recovered, and very fine network substructures
0.2 or 0.5 μ m. are observed. Moreover, some recrystallized grains are also
observed within the deformed subgrain structures at 1 123 K.
There is no substructure in the recrystallized grains. In the
3. Results
following, such equiaxed grains are called recrystallized
The effect of rolling reduction on the microstructure after grains.
Generally, the hardness or strength of a metal is increased
Table 1. Chemical composition of sample used (mass%). by deformation such as cold rolling, as the material accu-
Ti*/C,
mulates dislocation density. Figure 4 shows the relationship
Steel C Si Mn P S Al N Ti Nb between the hardness of hot-rolled steel sheets and rolling
Nb/C
reduction. Hardness increases with increasing rolling reduc-
Ti-IF 0.0022 <0.01 0.20 0.010 0.005 0.044 0.0016 0.023 0.001 1.99
tion at 1 073 K in the Nb-bearing IF steel, although it tends
Nb-IF 0.0020 0.01 0.18 0.010 0.006 0.037 0.0015 0.001 0.016 1.03 to be saturated at higher reductions over 52%. On the con-
TI*=Ti-3.43N trary, hardness apparently drops at a higher reduction of
Fig. 7. Initial grain size and recrystallized grain size after rolling.
Fig. 11. Relationship between average intensity of gamma fiber Fig. 12. Effect of warm-rolling reduction and temperature on Z-
and rolling reduction. factor in the present work.
Fig. 16. Image quality mapping (a) and IPF mapping for normal
direction (b) in Nb-bearing IF steel with 52% reduction at
1 123 K.
Fig. 14. Image quality mappings (a, c) and IPF mappings for nor-
mal direction (b, d) for Ti-bearing IF steel with 30%
reduction at 1 073 K (a, b) and Nb-bearing IF steel with
52% reduction at 1 123 K (c, d).
Fig. 18. Image quality mapping (a) and IPF mapping for normal
direction (b) in Nb-bearing IF steel with 52% reduction at
1 123 K.
Fig. 19. Misorientation (point-to-point and point-to-origin) along lines l1, l2 and l3 in Fig. 18.
rotation at the triple junctions. Thus, when steels recrystal- (3) Some recrystallized grains seemed to emerge as a
lize immediately after rolling, the γ -fiber cannot develop, result of strain-induced grain boundary movement that
even in IF steels, and an unfavorable texture for deep resembled dynamic recrystallization. However, due to the
drawability can be formed. In the present work, it was found higher Z-factor in the present work, it is very difficult to
that there is a critical condition for the change to this unfa- conclude that dynamic recrystallization actually occurred.
vorable texture. It is thought that the critical point can be (4) Some other recrystallization grains were surrounded
changed by modifying the steel chemistry and pre-rolled by high angle grain boundaries near triple junctions. How-
grain size (grain size before finish rolling in the ferritic ever, since such grains had already grown to a certain size,
region). In this work, the Nb-bearing IF steel has an advan- there is a possibility that nucleation occurred by the SIBM
tage in retarding recrystallization immediately after warm mechanism after localized crystal rotation at the triple junc-
rolling compared with the Ti-bearing IF steel, even though tions.
its atomic ratio, (Ti*/C) is twice as large as (Nb/C). When
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