Microstructure,texture and precipitates of grain-oriented silicon steel produced by thin slab casting and rolling process

A grain-oriented silicon steel strip with AlN as main inhibitor was produced by thin slab casting and rolling (TSCR) process.The microstructure, texture and precipitates of the hot-rolled strip were investigated by use of optical microscope (OM), X-ray diffractometer, transmission electron micro-scope (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscope (EDS).The result shows that the microstructure and texture exhibit a through-thickness gradient similar to that of the hot-rolled strip produced by con-ventional high-temperature slab-reheating process;the preferred orientation varies from{110}<001>in the surface layer to{001}<110> in the center layer, and the Goss texture with a maximum inten-sity mainly concentrates on the surface layer.In addition, some other texture components, for ex-ample rotated Goss texture, form in the 1/4 thickness layer, which are not observed in the hot-rolled strip produced by conventional high-temperature slab-reheating process.The precipitates in the hot-rolled strip are mainly (Mn,Cu)S and AlN compound particles with dimension of 100-200 nm, and the fine precipitates are significantly less than that in the hot-rolled strip produced by conven-tional high-temperature slab-reheating process.Moreover, the areal density of the fine precipitates in the center layer is more than that in the surface layer.