A comparative study of precipitates, microstructure, texture and magnetic properties between conventional and Nb-bearing grain oriented silicon steel was carried out. The results show that fine and dispersed Nb-bearing particles are formed in Nb-bearing steel and show stronger pinning force during the whole heat treatment process, which makes a significant effect on the microstructure and texture evolution during the preparation process. Compared to conventional grain oriented silicon steel, Nb-bearing steel exhibits finer microstructure and possesses more Goss grains in hot-rolled band and normalized band. In primary recrystallized band, fine and uniform microstructure is presented in Nb-bearing steel, meanwhile, it is also characterized by strong γ-fiber and {114}<481> texture. After final annealing, Nb-bearing steel shows better magnetic properties, B800=1.87 T and P1.7/50=1.25 W kg-1. In summary, niobium can be used as an effective inhibitor formation element to produce high quality Nb-bearing grain oriented silicon steel manufactured by low-temperature slab reheating process.
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