Provided is a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet which has been subjected to heat-resistant magnetic domain refining treatment and can effectively suppress carburizing and nitriding during stress relief annealing. The grain-oriented electrical steel sheet has a plurality of grooves on one side that extend linearly across the rolling direction and are lined up at intervals in the rolling direction, and has at least a forsterite film on a surface of the steel sheet, where an average thickness of the forsterite film formed on the floor of the grooves is 0.45 μm or more, and a standard deviation a of the thickness is 0.34 μm or less.

A high permeability grain oriented electrical steel having a chemistry comprising, all in weight percent, 2.5% to 4.5% silicon, 0.02% to 0.08% carbon, 0.01 to 0.05% aluminum, 0.005% to 0.050% sulfur or selenium, 0.02 to 0.20% manganese, 0.05 to 0.20% tin, 0.05 to 1% copper, 0.5% to 2.0% chromium, up to 0.10% phosphorus and up to 0.20% antimony with the balance being essentially iron and residual elements. The steel contains chromium and phosphorus in such amounts that a Cr:(P+0.25Sb) ratio is below 80:1 or, below 50:1, or below 30:1 which provides highly stable magnetic properties in the finished steel sheet. A hot processed band comprised of such steel is annealed and rapidly cooled after such annealing at a rate of at least 50° C. per second from 875-950° C. to a temperature below 400° C. prior to cold rolling to final thickness. Such steel forming a hot processed band having a thickness of from 1.5 to 4.0 mm and having a volume resistivity of at least 50 μΩ-cm, an austenite volume fraction (γ1150° C.) of at least 20%, and an isomorphic layer thickness of at least 2% of the total thickness on at least one surface of the hot processed band.

A high permeability grain oriented electrical steel having a chemistry comprising, all in weight percent, 2.5% to 4.5% silicon, 0.02% to 0.08% carbon, 0.01 to 0.05% aluminum, 0.005% to 0.050% sulfur or selenium, 0.02 to 0.20% manganese, 0.05 to 0.20% tin, 0.05 to 1% copper, 0.5% to 2.0% chromium, up to 0.10% phosphorus and up to 0.20% antimony with the balance being essentially iron and residual elements. The steel contains chromium and phosphorus in such amounts that a Cr:(P+0.25Sb) ratio is below 80:1 or, below 50:1, or below 30:1 which provides highly stable magnetic properties in the finished steel sheet. A hot processed band comprised of such steel is annealed and rapidly cooled after such annealing at a rate of at least 50° C. per second from 875-950° C. to a temperature below 400° C. prior to cold rolling to final thickness. Such steel forming a hot processed band having a thickness of from 1.5 to 4.0 mm and having a volume resistivity of at least 50 μΩ-cm, an austenite volume fraction (γ1150° C.) of at least 20%, and an isomorphic layer thickness of at least 2% of the total thickness on at least one surface of the hot processed band.

A soft magnetic powder of the invention has a composition represented by Fe.sub.100-a-b-c-d-e-fCu.sub.aSi.sub.bB.sub.cM.sub.dM′.sub.eX.sub.f (at %) [wherein M is Nb, W, Ta, Zr, Hf, Ti, or Mo, M′ is V, Cr, Mn, Al, a platinum group element, Sc, Y, Au, Zn, Sn, or Re, X is C, P, Ge, Ga, Sb, In, Be, or As, and a, b, c, d, e, and f are numbers that satisfy the following formulae: 0.1≤a≤3, 0<b≤30, 0<c≤25, 5≤b+c≤30, 0.1≤d≤30, 0≤e≤10, and 0≤f≤10], wherein a crystalline structure having a particle diameter of 1 nm or more and 30 nm or less is contained in an amount of 40 vol % or more, and the difference in the coercive force of the powder after classification satisfies predetermined conditions.

A soft magnetic powder of the invention has a composition represented by Fe.sub.100-a-b-c-d-e-fCu.sub.aSi.sub.bB.sub.cM.sub.dM′.sub.eX.sub.f (at %) [wherein M is Nb, W, Ta, Zr, Hf, Ti, or Mo, M′ is V, Cr, Mn, Al, a platinum group element, Sc, Y, Au, Zn, Sn, or Re, X is C, P, Ge, Ga, Sb, In, Be, or As, and a, b, c, d, e, and f are numbers that satisfy the following formulae: 0.1≤a≤3, 0<b≤30, 0<c≤25, 5≤b+c≤30, 0.1≤d≤30, 0≤e≤10, and 0≤f≤10], wherein a crystalline structure having a particle diameter of 1 nm or more and 30 nm or less is contained in an amount of 40 vol % or more, and the difference in the coercive force of the powder after classification satisfies predetermined conditions.

A crystalline Fe-based alloy powder composed of Fe-based alloy particles containing, within a structure thereof, nanocrystal grains having an average grain size of 30 nm or less, and in which d50, which is a particle diameter corresponding to a cumulative frequency of 50% by volume, is from 3.5 μm to 35.0 μm in a cumulative distribution curve that is obtained by laser diffractometry and that shows the relationship between the particle diameter and the cumulative frequency from the small particle diameter side, and a ratio of Fe-based alloy particles having a particle diameter of 2 μm or less to the total of the Fe-based alloy particles, which is determined by laser diffractometry, is from 0% by volume to 8% by volume.

An aluminum-based plated steel sheet according to an aspect of the present invention includes: a base material; an aluminum-based plating layer located above the base material; and an intermetallic compound layer that is located between the base material and the aluminum-based plating layer and contains an intermetallic compound of Al and Fe, in which the base material has a chemical component within a predetermined range, the aluminum-based plating layer contains, on average, 80 mass % or more and 97 mass % or less of Al, 3 mass % or more and 15 mass % or less of Si, 0 mass % or more and 5 mass % or less of Zn, 0 mass % or more and 5 mass % or less of Fe, 0 mass % or more and 3 mass % or less in total of one or more selected from the group consisting of Mg and Ca, and impurities so that a total amount thereof is 100 mass %, an average value of a thickness of the intermetallic compound layer is 2 μm or more and 10 μm or less, a maximum value of the thickness of the intermetallic compound layer is 10 μm or more and 25 μm or less, and a standard deviation of the thickness of the intermetallic compound layer is 2 μm or more and 10 μm or less.

Disclosed is a high-permeability ferrite-based stainless steel. According to an embodiment, the disclosed high-permeability ferrite-based stainless steel includes, in percent by weight (wt %), 0.0005 to 0.02% of C, 0.005 to 0.02% of N, 0.2 to 2.0% of Si, 10.0 to 25.0% of Cr, 0.05 to 0.5% of Nb, and the remainder of Fe and other inevitable impurities, wherein a Nb/(C+N) value satisfies a range of 5 to 20 and a <001>//RD texture fraction is 5% or more.

A cold-rolled and heat-treated steel sheet having a microstructure consisting of, in surface fraction: between 10% and 30% of retained austenite, the retained austenite being present as films having an aspect ratio of at least 3 and as Martensite Austenite islands, less than 8% of the Martensite Austenite islands having a size above 0.5 μm, at most 1% of fresh martensite, at most 50% of tempered martensite, and recovered martensite containing precipitates of at least one element chosen among niobium, titanium and vanadium. A method for manufacturing the cold-rolled and heat-treated steel sheet is also described.

A cold-rolled and heat-treated steel sheet having a microstructure consisting of, in surface fraction: between 10% and 30% of retained austenite, the retained austenite being present as films having an aspect ratio of at least 3 and as Martensite Austenite islands, less than 8% of the Martensite Austenite islands having a size above 0.5 μm, at most 1% of fresh martensite, at most 50% of tempered martensite, and recovered martensite containing precipitates of at least one element chosen among niobium, titanium and vanadium. A method for manufacturing the cold-rolled and heat-treated steel sheet is also described.