Effects of sulfur content and slab reheating temperature on the magnetic properties of fully processed nonoriented electrical steels

Abstract The effects of sulfur content and slab reheating temperature on the magnetic properties of four fully processed nonoriented electrical steels have been investigated. Four slabs of nonoriented electrical steels with sulfur content in the range of 0.0006–0.0126 wt% were reheated to 1100, 1200, and 1300 °C, respectively. Then, they were hot rolled and annealed at 700 °C, cold rolled at the same condition and annealed at 820 °C in the salt bath furnace for 1 min to simulate continuous annealing. The ac core loss, dc hysteresis loss, and ac and dc permeability were measured at 15 kG inductions. It was found that the amount of inclusions in the hot-rolled bands increased with increasing slab reheating temperature and increasing sulfur content in steels. After final annealing, grain sizes of cold-rolled steel sheets decreased with increasing sulfur content and increasing slab reheating temperature. The main preferred orientations in the final annealed steel sheets were (0 1 1) 〈1 0 0〉 and (1 1 1) 〈 u v w 〉 γ fiber texture. Steel sheets containing 0.0032 and 0.0060 wt% sulfur developed a more stronger (0 1 1)〈1 0 0〉 texture than other steel sheets. However, steel sheets containing 0.0126 wt% sulfur had the weakest (1 1 1)〈 u v w 〉 texture during slab reheating at temperatures higher than 1200 °C. Both ac core loss and dc hysteresis loss increased with increasing slab reheating temperature and increasing sulfur content in steel sheets. Both ac and dc permeability decreased with increasing slab reheating temperature and increasing sulfur content in steel sheets. If sulfur content decreased from 0.0060 to 0.0032 wt%, there were great improvements in ac core loss, dc hysteresis loss, and ac and dc permeability. However, eddy current loss was almost independent of the sulfur content and slab reheating temperature.