In modern process design of metallic components, the influence of the metal forming process on the component properties can be taken into account. However, damage occurring concurrent to forming cannot be accounted for yet. Due to the complex multi-scale, multi-mechanism nature of damage, it is very challenging to predict its evolution through any metal forming process chain. In order to enable such damage controlled forming processes in the future three research questions need to be addressed in detail: How are the mechanisms governing the damage initiation and evolution in metals best characterized? How can the damage mechanisms be described and the damage evolution be predicted using models? How do forming processes influence the damage evolution? Answering these questions and considering damage during process design will in the long term lead to improved lightweight components that do not require conventional safety factors, as their performance is already fully known.

The magnetic properties of non-oriented electrical steel, widely used in electric machines, are closely related to the grain size and texture of the material. How to control the evolution of grain size and texture through processing in order to improve the magnetic properties is the research focus of this article. Therefore, the complete process chain of a non-oriented electrical steel with 3.2 wt.-% Si was studied with regard to hot rolling, cold rolling, and final annealing on laboratory scale. Through a comprehensive analysis of the process chain, the influence of important process parameters on the grain size and texture evolution as well as the magnetic properties was determined. It was found that furnace cooling after the last hot rolling pass led to a fully recrystallized grain structure with the favorable ND-rotated-cube component, and a large portion of this component was retained in the thin strip after cold rolling, resulting in a texture with a low γ-fiber and a high ND-cube component after final annealing at moderate to high temperatures. These promising results on a laboratory scale can be regarded as an effective way to control the processing on an industrial scale, to finally tailor the magnetic properties of non-oriented electrical steel according to their final application.