Abstract: | Reduced temperatures can be applied for rolling of mild steels in wide hot strip mills. This has been investigated by laboratory and production trials with unalloyed and microalloyed deep drawing grades. A reduced slab reheating temperature leads to a grain refinement prior to rolling and to incomplete dissolution of precipitates. Decreased rolling temperature results in partial deformation in the ferrite region. The flow curves of mild steels show a relative minimum below γ/α transformation temperature, thus only low deformation forces are necessary. Ferrite rolling can develop coarse or partly recrystallized microstructures, depending on amount of strain and on coiling temperature. The yield strength, as a measure of cold formability, can be lowered compared to conventional rolling in the austenite region. |