Effect of Heat Treatment Under High Magnetic Field on Crystallographic Orientation and Magnetic Properties of Non-Oriented Electrical Steel Sheets

With the objective of improving and controlling the magnetic properties of non-oriented electrical steel sheets, the effects of an external dc magnetic field applied during heat treatment were studied. In this paper, we report on the effects of the direction of the magnetic field applied during heat treatment by comparing the magnetic properties of the samples. The heat treatment temperature was controlled to be 1123 and 1273 K. During heat treatment, the magnetic field was applied parallel to the rolling direction or rolling transverse direction of sheet samples, and the magnetic field strength was 10 T. The magnetic properties of a sample heat-treated under the magnetic field vary with the direction of the materials because of their magnetic anisotropy. The magnetic anisotropy could be reduced by controlling the magnetic characteristics by applying an external magnetic field during cooling. To conduct a crystallographic study, the evaluation of crystal orientation was carried out using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Crystal orientation distribution could be analyzed by the crystal analysis of the sample heat-treated in a magnetic field using EBSD.