Texture and Anisotropy Study on a Lightweight Steel

High Mn and high Al steel alloys are a class a steel on which there is a wide and ongoing research. The main reasons are the lightweight-ness (density 16% lower than a typical stainless austenitic steel like AISI 306L) and the very high mechanical properties (up to 800MPa of Yield Strength and up to 55% of elongation at fracture). As a consequence of their properties, they could be very interesting for the automotive sector, but to be employed in any industrial sectors other properties must be checked and studied e.g., the formability. This class of steels are featured by the precipitation of peculiar type of carbides, called k-carbides, which can have a beneficial effect on the mechanical properties (precipitation strengthening) if they precipitate intra-granularly in the austenite matrix. To exploit such strengthening effect, different thermal treatments have been studied and performed on an austenitic lightweight steel alloy (X100MnAl30-9). The evolution of the anisotropy and the texture in different condition have been studied considering different thermo-mechanical conditions. Texture analysis has revealed different orientations, like Rt-C and α-fiber, depending thermomechanical history of the samples and, due to mechanical testing, good workability and low earing tendency is expected for the alloy in the analyzed conditions.