Evolution of texture in precision seamless tubes investigated by synchrotron and neutron radiation measurement

Highlights: • Anisotropic behavior, crystallographic and texture evolution before and after drawing with tilting were studied. • Macro- and micro-texture were investigated. For macro-texture, crystallographic orientations were compared before and after drawing. • Micro-texture was studied for through-wall-thickness analyses. • Concerning the gradient over the wall-thickness, the cube component was the most dominant one at Max and Min positions. • After the first drawing step with tilting, the ODF intensity of the cube and Bs components were reduced. -- Abstract: High precision dimensionality tubes are required for a number of applications. Nevertheless, there are some troubles and challenges to produce high quality tubes in a cost-effective way. In recent works done at the Institute of Metallurgy at Clausthal University of Technology, the tube drawing process was optimized by introducing dynamic tilting and shifting of the die. These methods made it possible to control the wall-thickness variation and even residual stresses (RSs) evolution. A possible influence on texture evolution, however, has not yet been investigated, though it is well known that the crystallographic texture has a remarkable effect on materials' properties. Furthermore, the initial texture clearly influences the microstructural evolution during plastic deformation, affecting the RSs evolution and dimension accuracy, too. In this paper the evolution and heterogeneity of the texture are introduced for tube drawing performed with a tilted die. The measurements were done using synchrotron and neutron diffraction methods. The aim was to understand the behavior of the material during the asymmetrical tube drawing, caused by the tilted die, and connect the effects between eccentricity and residual stresses. Pole figures and ODF densities were studied and the creation and variation of different texture components were analyzed as well.