AbstractA quantitative study of variations in microstructure and texture evolution in the through thickness direction of industrially hot rolled AA 3004 aluminium alloy has been carried out. The microstructural features of the specimens were examined with the aid of the electron channelling contrast technique in conjunction with an image analysis system. The number of recrystallised grains and the size distributions of coarse and fine intermetallics were measured to evaluate the variation between surface and centre. Significant differences in the number of recrystallised grains and the average size of coarse intermetallics in the through thickness direction of the hotband were observed. After isothermal annealing of the hotband for various times the fine intermetallic area fraction increased and was higher at the centre than at the surface. Quantitative texture analysis was carried out on the specimens and various texture components estimated to characterise the through thickness texture evolution. The proportion of cube texture component was higher near the surface than at the centre and this difference increased after isothermal annealing. Since negligible change occurred in the cube content of the centre specimen, growth of cube grains was deduced to have taken place primarily near the surface region. These observations illustrate that mechanisms of cube texture formation, heterogeneous nucleation of precipitates causing retarded recrystallisation, and Zener drag are evidently applicable even to complex commercial alloys.MST/1849