Influence of inherent inhibition on the relationship between grain size and secondary recrystallization texture in oriented silicon iron

The existence of a relationship between the average grain size, measured after primary recrystallization, and the magnetic properties (texture) after secondary recrystallization of grain oriented silicon steel, produced by injected inhibitors technology, is well established. In the present paper such a relationship is investigated for different slab reheating temperatures. As a new result the investigation shows that this temperature is a relevant parameter influencing the above correlation. In fact it is shown how the slab reheating temperature strongly affects the presence of second phase particles, which inhibits the grain growth during primary recrystallization annealing (inherent inhibition). Therefore the optimal primary recrystallized grain size, in order to obtain good final magnetic properties, has to be generated by tuning the various process parameters according to the slab reheating temperature.