High Silicon steel production through hot-dipping in Al-Si-alloy and diffusion annealing

Abstract

It is difficult to process steel sheet with a high Si content (>3.5%Si), mainly because of its brittleness and the appearance of cracks during rolling and oxidation. However, there is a market for this steel in electrical applications because of the favourable influence of Si on magnetostriction and electrical resistivity. As an alternative process, 3% Si-steel substrates were coated with hypereutectic Al-Si-alloys in a "hot-dip simulator" using different preheating and dipping times. The obtained layers were characterised by SEM and EDS analysis. Diffusion annealing experiments were performed to obtain sufficient amount of Si in the steel. It was observed that:

• intermetallic phases appear in the coating layers as according to the ternary Fe-Si-Al diagram
• with a double dipping primary silicon crystals are formed in the surface layer
• the ordered DO₃ structure is present if the dipping and/or diffusion time is long enough
• homogeneous silicon gradients in the whole substrate thickness have not yet been achieved
• theoretic calculations show that Si-gradient, also have beneficial effects on magnetic behaviour