Cold rolled sheets of AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel have been
widely used in kitchen utensils, ornamental articles, among other
products due to their corrosion resistance and good formability.
However, a localized increase of the surface roughness, known as
ridging, develops during ferritic stainless steel forming [1]. The
ridging is caused by anisotropic plastic flow of the material containing
alternated bands of different crystallographic textures. These bands, or
grain colonies, are formed during hot rolling fabrication step. During
this step, the deformed grains can undergo dynamic recrystallization
and/or recovery. In the regions where recovery takes place these texture
bands are formed. In order to study ridging, it is necessary to identify
the recovered regions (regions containing sub grains with nearly the
same crystal orientation) and recrystallized regions (regions containing
grains with different crystal orientations). Two well established
techniques are applied to the characterization of recrystallized and
recovered grains: the optical microscopy with polarized light, normally
done in samples prepared with colored etching, and the electron
backscatter diffraction (EBSD). In this work, atomic force microscopy
(AFM) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM) were used to study the
recrystallization and the recovery of the deformed specimens.