Effect of 0.5 mass% Cu Addition on Ductility and Magnetic Properties of Fe-6.5Si Alloy

The effect of adding 0.5mass% Cu on ductility and magnetic properties of Fe-6.5Si（mass%）alloy was investigated.The alloys with and without 0.5mass% Cu addition were warm rolled into thin sheets of thickness no more than 0.3mm at temperature below 600 ℃.It was found that the alloy with 0.5mass% Cu addition was more easily warm rolled than Cu-free alloy.Tensile tests were carried out to further investigate this phenomenon,which confirmed that the ductility of the alloy with 0.5mass% Cu addition was significantly higher than that of Cu-free alloy at 550 ℃.Based on the results of transmission electron microscopy analysis,the ductility increase of the alloy with 0.5mass% Cu addition was attributed to the effect of Cu on the promotion of dynamic recovery and suppression of long-range order in the alloy during warm rolling process.It was also observed that the iron loss was lower and inductance was higher for the alloy with 0.5 mass% Cu addition.Thus,it can be concluded that adding a suitably small amount of Cu would not only increase the ductility of Fe-6.5Si alloy at warm rolling temperatures but also improve its magnetic properties.

Effect of Deformation Temperature on Deformation Mechanism of Fe-6.5Si Alloys with Different Initial Microstructures

Deformation behaviors and mechanisms under different temperatures for columnar-grained Fe 6.5Si （mass%） alloys fabricated by directional solidification and equiaxed grained Fe-6.5Si alloy fabricated by forging were comparatively investigated. The results showed that, with increasing the deformation temperature from 300℃ to 500℃, the elongation increased from 2.9% to 30.1% for the equiaxed-grained Fe-6.5Si alloy, while from 6.6% to about 51% for the columnar-grained Fe-6.5Si alloy. The deformation mode of equiaxed-grained Fe 6.5Si alloy trans ferred from nearly negligible plastic deformation to large plastic deformation dominated by dislocation slipping. Comparatively, the deformation mode of the columnar grained alloy transferred from nearly negligible plastic deformation to plastic deformation dominated by the twining, and finally to plastic deformation dominated by dislocation slipping. Meanwhile, compared with the alloy with equiaxed grains, it was found that ultimate tensile strength and elongation could be increased simultaneously, which was ascribed for the twinning deformation in columnar-grained Fe-6.5Si al loy. This work would assist us to further understand the plastic deformation mechanism of Fe-6.5Si alloy and pro vide more clues for high-efficiency production of the alloy.

Morphology and distribution of precipitates and their effects on compression cracks in Fe-6.5Si-0.02B electrical steel

Morphology and distribution of precipitates in the Fe-6.5Si-0.02B alloy were characterized, and these effects on room- temperature compression cracks were investigated. The results showed that the precipitate in the Fe-6.5Si-0.02B alloy is FezB with body-centered tetragonal structure, and its nano-hardness is 15.0 GPa which is higher than that of the matrix （- 8.5 GPa）. In the as-cast alloys, most of the intragranular precipitates are coarse lath-like with the length of 5-15 μm and width of 2-5 μm, and the precipitates formed at the grain boundaries are of about 2-3 μm in width. After oil quenching followed by heat treatment at 1100 ℃ for more than 30 min, the precipitates inside grains are refined with a size of several hundred nanometers and the precipitates at the grain boundaries are refined with a size of 〈 1 μm. After compression test, transgranular and intergranular cracks occur in the as-cast alloys with coarse precipitates. For the quenched alloys with fine precipitates, the number of cracks decreases significantly, and no transgranular cracks happen because some cracks are blocked or the propagation direction is changed by grain boundary.

Evolution of Microstructure and Ordering in Rolling Process of Fe-6. 5 mass% Si Alloy

Fe-6. 5 mass% Si alloy is an excellent soft magnetic material with good application prospects. After rolling,the structure of the sheet is likely to be heterogeneous along the normal direction. The microstructure and ordering evolution in the thickness range of the sheets during hot-warm rolling process was studied by means of optical microscope and transmission electron microscope. The results show that dynamic recrystallization occurs in the surface parts during the hot and warm rolling processes,where the grains are equiaxed but have high density of dislocations due to the large deformation. The grains in the center part are elongated along the rolling direction. It is also found that in the hot rolled sheet,the center part has lower density of dislocations because of dynamic recovery. Meanwhile,this part has higher ordering content compared with the surface part,indicating that the high density of dislocations can inhibit the formation of ordering in the air cooling process after hot rolling. In the warm rolling process,both of the parts are deformed heavily. Large deformation destroys ordered phases and induces disordering. The ordering content is low in the whole warm rolled sheet.