Texture, microstructure and anisotropic properties of IF-steels with different additions of titanium, niobium and phosphorus

Interstitial free steels (IF steels) find wide application in the automotive industry, due to their excellent drawability. This work aims to study the microstructural and mechanical properties variations that might occur in an IF steel, when amounts of titanium, niobium and phosphorus are added to a specific alloy composition. The goal is to address how the insertion of such elements could provide excellent deep drawing applications without compromising the steel mechanical strength. Mechanical testing was performed in different samples to determine the steel anisotropy and compare those to the calculated crystallographic texture obtained by X-ray diffraction analysis. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) was also performed to correlate the properties achieved by the alloying elements to the microstructure of the steel rolled sheets. Keywords: IF steels, Alloying elements, Anisotropy, Crystallographic textur