*3.5. Texture Analysis*

Good stamping properties are also an important goal in the field of automobile manufacturing. Deep drawability is related to the composition of a favorable texture in the steel. The larger the {111}/{100} coefficient of the favorable texture, the larger the r-value, indicating that the deep drawability of the steel plate is better [18]. Therefore, the essence of the study of the stamping properties of steel plates is to obtain more favorable textures in the microstructure. The type and density distribution of related textures can be determined with the orientation distribution function (ODF). The denser the orientation lines in the ODF cross section, the greater the orientation density. However, in general, only the main orientation distribution changes in the ODF diagram need to be analyzed. During the rolling process of steel plate, the grain orientation gradually converges to the α orientation line and the γ orientation line. Therefore, we mainly observed the texture type and density (ϕ<sup>2</sup> = 45◦) on these two orientation lines.

Figure 7 shows the textured ODF cross sections of two groups of experimental steels at the optimal annealing temperature of ϕ<sup>2</sup> = 45◦. It can be seen that there were {001}<110>, {011}<110>, {111}<110>, and {111}<112> textures in the two experimental steels after holding at 645 ◦C for 15min, and the texture density levels of the two experimental steels were very close. The strong peak position of the two experimental steels was near the {111}<110> texture on the γ orientation line, but the texture distribution of the experimental steel with the rare-earth element Ce was more uniform, and the texture density was up to 2.6. The contents of each orientation texture of the two groups of experimental steels were compared, as shown in Table 3. It can be seen that the contents of each orientation texture of the experimental steels increased slightly after adding rare-earth elements. Among them, the content of the {111} texture increased more. Combined with the analysis of Figure 7, the trace rare-earth elements may affect the texture of the experimental steel, which is beneficial for improving the forming properties, but the effect is not obvious compared with the effect on the mechanical properties. This requires further analysis of the changes in the favorable texture {111} and unfavorable texture {100} components.

**Figure 7.** ODF cross sections of ϕ<sup>2</sup> = 45◦ of two groups of experimental steels under different heat treatment processes: (**a**) 0 RE, (**b**) 9 ppm RE.

**Table 3.** Texture contents of each orientation after the ART annealing process.


The {111} texture of the steel sheet is beneficial for the improvement of stamping performance, the {100} texture is not conducive to the improvement of stamping performance, and the {110} texture is located between the two textures. The texture contents of the {111}, {110}, and {100} planes of the two groups of experimental steels under two heat treatment processes were analyzed and calculated using ResMat-TexTools software, as shown in Figure 8. In the figure, it can be seen that the contents of the favorable textures {111} and {110} in the experimental steel with rare earth were higher than those in the experimental steel without rare earth. The content of the {111} texture was 13.4%, the content of the {110} texture was 19.6%, and the content of the unfavorable texture {100} was only 11.1%. Thus, the addition of trace rare-earth elements is beneficial for improving the formability of steel.

**Figure 8.** Texture contents of two groups of experimental steels after different annealing processes.
