Electropulse-induced texture elimination and <100> texture formation in hot-rolled annealed 35CrMo steel

Rolling texture impacts the formability and usability of steel due to the anisotropy, but it is difficult to remove even after annealing. This work found that the electropulsing treatment can eliminate the hot-rolled and annealed texture in 35CrMo steel (<111>//ND, normal direction, and <110>//RD, rolling direction) at a relatively lower current density and produce a new <100> texture along the current direction via higher current density. Furthermore, the electropulse-induced texture evolution law was established by preparing gradient current density in steel. Electron backscattered diffraction and micro-region X-ray diffraction were used to study texture evolution. By analyzing the texture evolution at different stages of the phase transition, it is concluded that the electropulse-induced texture change mainly occurs at the grain growth stage. The suppression and preferential grain growth caused by different scattering degrees of electron flow with various grain orientations are thought to be responsible for the observed phenomenon.