Effect of microalloying elements on the Cube texture formation of Fe48%Ni alloy tapes

The effect of microalloying elements sulfur and niobium was studied in Fe48%Ni sheets on the first stages of nucleation and on recrystallization. It was shown that the addition of sulfur promotes the formation of Cube grains while the addition of niobium prevents the Cube grains formation. Regarding sulfur, it combines with manganese which is an inhibitor of recrystallization to form the MnS precipitates. The stored energy difference between Cube component and others components AEoube/other increases when sulfur is added. This stored energy difference which is the main driving energy for Cube grains formation during recrystallization explains the sharpness of the Cube texture when sulfur is added. On the contrary the niobium microalloying element addition prevents the formation of Cube grains. This could be explained by the fact that stored energy of cold-rolled components decreases with the addition of niobium and thus decreases Cube grains fraction when niobium is added. In order to explain these results, the development of Cube texture during recrystallization has been investigated in detail by EBSD, furthermore, the effect of stored energy has been studied by carrying out neutron diffraction measurements on the deformed states.