Evaluation of the texture of an IF steel by ultrasonic techniques

Full text: The use of IF steel in the manufacture of components with complex geometry has its main target in automotive industry, as it has higher surface quality and formability if compared to conventional steels . The material's degree of formability is directly related to its microstructure and, particularly, to the preferred orientation assumed by the grains after annealing. The analysis of the microstructure is therefore of extreme importance to the selection of both material and thermo-mechanical processing to be applied. Much research has been developed to adapt the use of non-destructive testing, such as ultrasound, in materials characterization and the advantage of this non-destructive technique lies in the fact that it can be applied without the need for sample preparation. This study aims to measure the texture of annealed IF steel samples using the ultrasound technique and compare it with the results obtained in conventional measurement by means of X- ray diffraction. (author)