Effect of decarburisation and nitriding on the carbon content, precipitates, microstructure and texture of Nb-bearing grain-oriented silicon steel.

The decarburisation annealing processes of Nb-bearing grain-oriented silicon steel under different conditions were conducted. The effect of nitriding and decarburisation annealing time on the carbon content, precipitates, microstructure and texture of Nb-bearing grain-oriented silicon steel were investigated by the various analysis methods. The results show that the carbon content in the steel decreases as decarburisation time increasing, and decreases below 0.003% eventually. Larger number density and smaller size of precipitates were obtained in the sample treated by nitriding before decarburisation annealing process, leading to fine and uniform microstructure, which is beneficial to obtain excellent magnetic properties for Nb-bearing grain-oriented silicon steel. The main texture types of the experimental samples were γ-fibres with a peak at {111}<112 >. The nitriding before decarburisation annealing process makes little effect on texture evolution during decarburisation annealing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]