Method for producing fiber texture and cube-texture sheets of iron-base alloys

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR PRODUCING CUBE TEXTURE IRON-BASE SHEET MATERIAL FOR MAGNETIC PURPOSES FROM HOT-ROLLED PLATE HAVING A RECRYSTALLIZED STRUCTURE AND ESSENTIALLY RANDOM GRAIN ORIENTATION, COMPRISING THE STEPS OF, (1) COLD ROLLING THE PLATE FROM 40% TO 80% TO FROM SHEET MATERIAL, (2) ANNEALING THE REDUCED SHEET IN A WET HYDROGEN ATMOSPHERE AT A TEMPERATURE OF FROM 700*C. TO 1000*C. FOR FROM ABOUT 1 TO 5 HOURS TO PROVIDE RECRYSTALLIZATION AND DECARBURIZATION, (3) ANNEALING THE RECRYSTALLIZED SHEET AT A TEMPERATURE OF FROM 1100*C. TO 1300:C. FOR FROM 6 TO 48 HOURS IN DRY HYDROGEN, THE ABOVE STEPS YIELDING A SHEET MATERIAL HAVING A (001) FIBER TEXTURE WITH THE ROLLING DIRECTION AS THE FIBER AXIS, (4) COLD ROLLING THE FIBER TEXTURE SHEET TO EFFECT A REDUCTION OF FROM 40% TO 80%, (5) ANNEALING THE MATERIAL AT A TEMPERATURE IN THE RANGE FROM 400*C. TO 600*C. FOR FROM ABOUT 4 TO 48 HOURS TO OBTAIN PARTIAL PRIMARY RECRYSTALLIZATION, (6) COMPLETING THE ANNEALING OF THE SHEET MATERIAL AT TEMPERATURES IN THE RANGE FROM 700*C. TO 100*C. FOR A PERIOD OF FROM ABOUT 1/2 TO 12 HOURS TO OBTAIN SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLETE PRIMARY RECRYSTALLIZATION, AND (7) REPEATING STEPS 4, 5 AND 6, AT LEAST ONCE IN THE ORDER SET FORTH TO PRODUCE A FINE-GRAINED SHEET MATERIAL HAVING AT LEAST 40% CUBE GRAINS, THE IRON-BASE SHEET MATERIAL COMPRISING AT LEAST ONE ELEMENT SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF SILICON, ALUMINUM, AND MOLYBDENUM, THE SILICON NOT EXCEEDING 6%, THE ALUMINUM NOT EXCEEDING 8%, AND THE MOLYBEDNUM NOT EXCEEDING 5%, AND THE BALANCE BEING IRON WITH SMALL AMOUNTS OF INCIDENT IMPURITIES.