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Abstract

With a process for producing grain-oriented electrical steel strip by means of thin slab continuous casting, comprising the following process steps: a) smelting a steel with a smelt which, in addition to iron (Fe) and unavoidable impurities, contains Si: 2.00-4.00 wt %, C: 0.025-0.100 wt %, Mn: 0.060-0.500 wt %, Cu: 0.200-0.550 wt %, Al_sl: 0.010-0.030 wt %, S: <100 ppm, N: 80-120 ppm, and one or more elements from the group comprising Cr, V, Ni and Mo, each <0.100 wt %, b) continuously casting the smelt by thin slab continuous casting to form a strand having a thickness of 50-120 mm, and dividing the strand into thin slabs, c) heating up the thin slabs, preferably in a linear furnace, to a temperature above 1,050° C. and subjecting the slabs to homogenization annealing at a maximum temperature of 1,250° C., d) immediately prior to the first hot rolling pass of a subsequent hot rolling process, passing the slabs through an induction heating device, in particular, a high frequency induction heating device, and heating the thin slabs to a maximum temperature of 1,350° C., which is above the respective homogenization temperature of process step c), e) continuously hot rolling the thin slabs to form a hot strip having a thickness of 1.8 mm-3.0 mm, f) cooling and reeling the hot-rolled strip at a reeling temperature of less than 650° C. to form a coil, g) annealing the hot-rolled strip after reeling and prior to a subsequent cold rolling step at a temperature of between 910° C. and 1,140° C., h) cold rolling the hot strip in a first cold rolling stage to an (intermediate) thickness of 0.50 mm-0.80 mm, i) subjecting the resulting cold-rolled strip to recrystallization and decarburization annealing at a strip temperature ranging from 820° C.-890° C. for a period of 300-600 seconds in a gaseous annealing atmosphere which acts on the cold-rolled strip and contains nitrogen (N₂) and hydrogen (H₂), and which has a water vapor/hydrogen partial pressure ratio pH₂O/pH₂ of 0.30 to 0.60, j) in a second cold rolling stage, cold rolling the cold strip which has been subjected to recrystallization and decarburization annealing to its (final) thickness or its nominal usable thickness of 0.15 mm-0.40 mm, k) applying an annealing separator (non-stick layer) containing MgO to the strip surface of the cold-rolled strip which has been rolled to its final thickness or usable thickness, l) subjecting the cold-rolled strip which has been coated with the annealing separator to secondary recrystallization annealing by high-temperature annealing in a bell-type furnace at a temperature of >1,150° C., forming a finished steel strip having a pronounced Goss texture, and m) coating the finished steel strip which has undergone secondary recrystallization annealing with an electrically insulating layer and then stress-free annealing or stress-relief annealing the coated finished steel strip, an improved process for producing grain-oriented electrical steel strip by means of thin slab continuous casting is provided, by which it is possible to introduce an inhibitor into the steel strip, which controls secondary grain growth during secondary recrystallization annealing in a high-temperature bell-type annealing furnace.

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