Resumo:
Texture analysis is a method of process control to better understand the behavior of material properties throughout it. It is intrinsically related to the forming process and the material’s microstructure. Planetary Rolling Process is derived from Piercing Rolling Process and can be applied in the production of seamless copper tubes, replacing additional processes of reheating and drilling of the billet, as well as allowing for longer starting tubes. In this case study, there was a variation in the starting material for the tube production with capacity to reduce about 90% of initial thickness of the tube. The process used to feed a Pilger Mill with reheated extruded billets. Currently, the process takes place directly from the cast billet to feed the planetary mill. The planetary mill was temporarily fed with extruded billets as well, which led to a question as to whether this could modify the properties of the final product. By using texture as a process control variable, this study aims to catalog the textures by the planetary lamination process of seamless copper alloy 10300 tubes obtained by different starting structures, to analyze them, to compare them and to understand them within the process’ context. Texture analysis of external surface showed some variation for both the macrotexture and the microtexture of the same starting material. To macrotexture was mainly {200} and for microtexture was mainly {111}. It is possible that the layers could recrystallize at different times due to the different velocities and deformation temperatures that vary along the thickness of the tube. And then the transversal surface was analyzed and showed some {111} around outer surface and {100} at the bulk. This means that the deformation of the tube is so intense that the texture tendency may not be related to starting material’s characteristics. To prove that, further analyses should be performed as macrotexture of middle thickness surface and inner surface of the tube.
