Influence of Thickness and Chemical Composition of Hot-Rolled Bands on the Final Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of Non-Oriented Electrical Steel Sheets Subjected to Two Different Decarburizing Atmospheres

During electrical steel processing, there are usually small variations in both chemical composition and thickness in the hot-rolled material that may lead to different magnetic properties for the same steel grade. Therefore, it is of great importance to know the effects of such variations on the final microstructure and magnetic properties of these steels. In the present investigation, samples of a specific grade of a commercial hot-rolled grain non-oriented (GNO) electrical steel were taken from different steel batches to investigate the effects of thickness and chemical composition (C, Sn, Mn and Ti) in the hot-rolled material on the final microstructure and magnetic properties (core losses and magnetic permeability) resulting from two different decarburizing annealing cycles. Hot-rolled samples were processed by cold rolling, intermediate annealing, temper-rolling and final decarburization annealing using the same processing parameters. The experimental results show that the minimum core losses and maximum magnetic permeability are obtained with the thinnest steel thickness and the largest grain size. Increasing Sb and Mn contents, and reducing the C and Ti concentrations also improve the magnetic behavior of these steels. It was also found the effect of grain size on the magnetic behavior is more significant than the one of crystallographic texture