CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC TEXTURE AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES IN HIGH MARTENSITIC DUAL PHASE STEELS S. Barella , R. Venturini,C. Mapelli Politecnico di Milano-Dipartimento di Meccanica-Sezione Materiali Via La Masa 34, 20156 Milano ABSTRACT The Dual Phase Steels microstructure consists of a dispersion of a hard second phase (martensite) in a matrix of ferrite or viceversa. This microsctructure gives to these steels optimum combination of strength and ductility. Dual phase steels are known since 1963 but in recent years they have met a growing interest in the applications of the automotive industries, where the high strength is important to reduce the weight of the components and the good formability can improve the quality and the production rate of the final cold forming operations. The physical and mechanical properties of the Dual Phase steels are closely related to the possible presence of preferential crystallographic orientations produced during the manufacturing process that might induce the anisotropy in their mechanical and physical features. The textures can be developed during the rolling of the sheets in relation of the induced reduction ratio. Also the heat treatment influences the final texture induced in the rolled sheet as a function of the former parent texture. In the present study the formability and the mechanical properties of two different dual phase steels with high content of martensite volume fraction (60% and 80%) were analyzed to obtain a better understanding of the relationship among texture, microstructure and plastic anisotropy in these steels. KEYWORDS Dual Phase, Texture, Deep Drawing, Formability Limit Curve, Steel Sheet, r-value