LAUSR

Abstract The influence of Nb content on the primary recrystallization microstructure, crystallographic texture and magnetic properties of grain-oriented silicon steel manufactured by low-temperature slab reheating were studied. The results show that the effect of grain refining was enhanced with the increase of Nb content. With the increase of Nb content, the total contents of texture {1 1 1}〈1 1 2〉 and {1 1 4}〈4 8 1〉 in primary recrystallization which are beneficial to the secondary recrystallization increased, but the contents of deviated Goss component and adverse textures with abnormal growth ability in primary recrystallization also increased, which led to the deterioration of magnetic properties. By adding 0.005% Nb, the average size of the primary grain reduced to 23 μm, the content of {1 1 0}〈1 1 2〉 increased slightly and the least deviated Goss nuclei were obtained, therefore the final product had the sharpest {1 1 0}〈0 0 1〉 texture of secondary recrystallization and the best magnetic properties with B800 = 1.873 T , P1.7/50 = 1.21 W/kg.