This study was mainly oriented on the evolution of the crystallographic texture as a function of the deformation resulting from the industrial wire drawing process. This, in fact, will make it possible to establish a relationship between the microstructure and the crystallographic texture in the medium carbon steel wires obtained by industrial wire drawing process and used in the manufacture of spring mattresses in order to minimize the loss of material and to satisfy the users of this product.During this study, a medium-carbon steel wires was characterized by two analytical techniques. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to monitor the microstructure evolution and the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) for the crystallographic texture analysis. The EBSD results are processed with OIM (Orientation Imaging Microscopy) analysis software.

In this paper, the evolution of texture in the ferrite phase and mechanical behavior of cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires produced for strand manufacturing at Trefisoud company was investigated. Wire drawing induces the development of dislocation density, reduction of interlamellar spacing and the refinement of grains size which leads to a strong hardening of the wires. That explains the increase of the tensile strength from 1242 MPa to 2618 MPa with higher deformation. Also, the cementite lamellae are rotated toward the drawing axis and the thickness of lamellae further decreases when strain level increases, this phenomenon leads to a somewhat fibrous structure. The quantitative analysis obtained by EBSD data shows the development of a strong (<110> // ND) texture of the ferrite phase leading to a structural transformation from isotropic to anisotropic.