Correlation between the Magnetic Properties and the Crystallographic Texture during the Processing of Non Oriented Electrical Steel

The magnetic properties in electrical steels are strongly dependent on the crystallographic texture as well as other microstructural features such as grain size. Both, texture and grain size, are determined by the then-no-mechanical history of the material. This work regards a set of different thermo-mechanical paths applied on two types of non-oriented electrical steels containing 2.4% and 3.0%Si, respectively. The evolution of grain size, microstructure morphology and texture throughout processing were studied in detail by optical microscopy, X-Ray diffraction and Electron BackScatter Diffraction (EBSD). The impact of the texture on the magnetic properties was evaluated. This was done by the calculation of the magnetic anisotropy energy and the A parameter, i.e. a parameter defined in scientific literature that describes the magnetic "quality" of the texture, which can be correlated with the magnetic properties of the materials. Finally, the influence of further laser cutting on the crystallographic texture will be examined as well.