Crystallite-assisted <i>γ</i>-fiber Texture Formation during Two Stage Cold Rolling of Ferritic Stainless Steel and Its Corresponding Relationship with Formability

During two stage cold rolling, texture and formability at various reduction distribution coefficients (n) were investigated for ferritic stainless steel for elucidating the evolution of recrystallization texture and leveraging the advantages of this process. The shear band-induced crystallite occurred during cold rolling, and a model of crystallite-assisted γ-fiber texture development was presented during annealing. High cold rolling reduction promoted the crystallite formation and their transformation into more stable {111}<112> components, and the {111}<112> recrystallized nuclei growth, while low cold rolling reduction retarded the phenomenon that the surrounding matrix of deformed grain occurring preferential nucleation was consumed through priority developed γ-fiber recrystallized grain, and promoted the {111}<110> recrystallized nuclei growth during final annealing. Hence, after final annealing, as n decreased (first and second stage cold rolling reductions increased and decreased, respectively), the γ-fiber textures weakened and the fluctuation of intensity along γ-fiber reduced, and the intensity of {110}<001> component displayed a gradual increase followed by reduce. Moreover, as n decreased, the distribution for oriented grain clusters after annealing exhibited gradual uniformity followed by unevenness on account of low degree of microstructure fragmentation and high recovery tendency at lower cold rolling reduction and high nucleation and growth tendency of grains with similar orientations at higher cold rolling reduction. As n decreased, therefore, the ridging resistance and anisotropy of r-value displayed a step-by-step rise followed by a step-by-step reduce, and the difference in r-value was small. The n of 0.405 contributed to realizing optimal matching of r-value and its anisotropy and ridging resistance.