Abstract: The ferritic stainless steel sheet involves a problem that the ridging is likely to generate at the forming step, such as the deep drawing step. The ridging is believed to be caused by a band structure in the hot rolled band, which structure exerting an influence on the formability of a cold rolled sheet. The ridging is prevented in the present invention by means of the combination of the three technical measures: incorporating aluminum into a ferritic stainless steel; heating a slab to a low temperature of 1200.degree. C. or less; and, carrying out a drastic hot rolling of at least one pass with the draft of 20%/pass or more. As a result of these technical measures, the structure of a hot rolled band is made and uniform and thus both the formability and anti-ridging property are enhanced.

Abstract: A ferritic stainless steel having excellent formability, for example, in a deep drawing procedure, contains 0.04 to 0.1 weight % of C, 1.0 weight % or less of Si, 0.75 weight % or less of Mn, 10 to 30 weight % of Cr, 0.5 weight % or less of Ni, 0.025 weight % or les of N, 2 to 30 ppm of boron, and optionally, 0.005 to 0.4 weight % of an additional alloy component consisting of Al and, further optionally, a further additional alloy component consisting of at least one member selected from 0.005 to 0.6 weight % of Ti, 0.005 to 0.4 weight % of Nb, V, and Zr, 0.02 to 0.50 weight % of Cu, and 0.05 weight % or less of Ca and Ce, the sum of the contents of C and N being 0.0502 weight % or more.

Abstract: In a process for the production of cold rolled ferritic stainless steel sheets or strips, a hot rolled strips has been annealed by a long time batchwise annealing and cold rolling and recrystallization annealing have been repeated usually twice. In the present invention, a hot rolled steel strip of an Al-containing ferritic stainless steel is heated by continuous annealing to a temperature of from 850.degree. to 1100.degree. C., AlN (aluminum nitride) is precipitated in the dispersed state and then cooling the strip to a temperature of 700.degree. to 900.degree. C., performing subsequent cooling to a level not higher than 200.degree. C. at such a cooling rate that a chromium depletion layer, which causes a gold dust defect, is not formed around the chromium carbonitride. Single cold rolling and recrystallization annealing are carried out in combination until the thickness is reduced to the gauge thickness.