Abstract

It is shown that the initial grain size in α-brass affects rolling texture formation by the large scale arrangement of developing shear bands, which destroys {111} oriented material when the grain size is small. This is likely to be a general phenomenon in low SFE materials. On annealing at 300℃ in the intermediate rolling reduction range (i.e. 82%–92%), the recrystallisation texture changes from {236}〈385〉 to {110}〈110〉 with increasing initial grain size. At 600℃ the texture becomes {110}〈112〉 at grain sizes greater than 200 μm. Nucleation sites of {110} 〈110〉 crystals have been characterised and conditions favouring the formation of {110}〈112〉 have been identified.