Abstract
Abstract
Although ferritic hot rolling was introduced to avoid the temperature control problems that can be encountered during traditional hot rolling of thin strip in the austenite condition, numerous advantages are offered by finishing the hot rolling operations with a fully ferritic microstructure. Laboratory hot rolling facilities and procedures were therefore developed to establish the influence of variations in the reheating, finishing and coiling temperatures on the microstructure and mechanical properties of interstitial-free (IF) steels. Processing schedules suitable for both recrystallized and strained ferritically hot-rolled IF steels are identified and discussed in relation to the feasibility of manufacturing these products using conventional hot mills.