Texture Evolution of Fe–3.27 wt.% Si Nonoriented Electrical Steel During Deformation and Recrystallization

To reveal the recrystallization texture formation mechanism in thin‐gauge, high‐grade nonoriented electrical steel during final annealing, Fe–3.27 wt.% Si steel was single‐stage cold rolled to 0.30 mm. Microstructure and texture evolution during annealing at 800 °C were studied by EBSD and ODF. With increasing cold‐rolling reduction, grains elongated along RD; intragranular deformation bands, shear bands, and high orientation gradients increased, raising local stored energy. The cold‐rolling texture concentrated toward stable deformation orientations: α ‐fiber strengthened, while part of γ ‐fiber transformed to {112}<110> and {223}<110>. Annealing involved recovery‐dominated, rapid recrystallization, and preferential growth after recrystallization completion. At 5–7 s, recrystallization preferentially nucleated in γ ‐oriented shear bands and high stored‐energy regions; at 10–12 s, equiaxed recrystallized grains increased significantly and gradually cut through the banded deformed matrix; at 15–20 s, recrystallization completed and competitive growth occurred. The cold‐rolling texture weakened, whereas γ ‐fiber, Goss, Cube, and α {114}<481> strengthened. α {114}<481> showed advantages in grain size and volume fraction during middle and late stages, reaching 20.67 μm at 20 s. After final annealing at 1000 °C for 3 min, an α *‐dominated texture with γ ‐fiber and Cube formed, giving P _1.5/50  = 2.16 W/kg, P _1.0/400  = 15.12 W/kg, and B ₅₀  = 1.68 T.