Grain-oriented silicon steel sheet excellent in adhesiveness to tension-creating insulating coating films and method for producing the same

A method for producing a grain-oriented silicon steel sheet excellent in adhesiveness to tension-creating insulating coating films formed by, in advance of the formation of the tension-creating insulating coating films:

• annealing a final annealed grain-oriented silicon steel sheet produced by removing the inorganic mineral coating films composed of forsterite, and so on, by pickling or the like or by deliberately preventing the formation thereof in a low-oxidizing atmosphere to form oxides on the surfaces thereof;
• then applying a liquid for forming the tension-creating insulating coating films;
• and baking the application liquid:
• characterized by satisfying any one or more of the following requirements A to E:
• A. to form particulate oxides mainly composed of amorphous silica in addition to external oxidation type membranous oxide films of 2 to 500 nm in average thickness mainly composed of amorphous silica by imposing micro-strains and/or forming micro-roughnesses on the surfaces of the steel sheet prior to the annealing in a low-oxidizing atmosphere for forming the oxides, and then annealing the steel sheet in a low-oxidizing atmosphere at a temperature from 600 to 1,150° C.;
• B. to control the percentage of oxides composed of one or more elements selected from among Fe, Al, Ti, Mn and Cr in the external oxidation type oxide films mainly composed of amorphous silica to 50% or less in terms of area percentage at a section by controlling the heating rate to 10 to 500° C./sec. in a heating temperature range from 200 to 1,150° C., during the annealing process in a low-oxidizing atmosphere for forming the external oxidation type membranous oxide films and the particulate oxides;
• C. to control the percentage of voids in the external oxidation type oxide films mainly composed of amorphous silica to 30% or less in terms of area percentage at a section by controlling the cooling rate to 100° C./sec. or less in a cooling temperature range from 1,150 to 200° C., during the annealing process in a low-oxidizing atmosphere for forming the external oxidation type oxide films and the particulate oxides;
• D. to control the percentage of metallic iron in the external oxidation type oxide films mainly composed of amorphous silica to 30% or less in terms of area percentage at a section by controlling the dew point of the cooling atmosphere to 60° C. or lower in a cooling temperature range from 1,150 to 200° C., during the annealing process in a low-oxidizing atmosphere for forming the external oxidation type oxide films and the particulate oxides;
• and
• E. to control the average thickness of low-density layers to 30% or less of the total thickness of the external oxidation type oxide films mainly composed of amorphous silica, when they are evaluated in terms of the ratio between elastic scattering strength and inelastic scattering strength measured by electron energy loss spectroscopy, by controlling the time during which the application liquid for forming the tension-creating insulating coating films and the steel sheet with the amorphous silica contact each other to 20 sec. or less, in the temperature range of 100° C. or lower, in the method of forming the tension-creating insulating coating films by applying the liquid for forming the tension-creating insulating coating films and baking the application liquid.