Images of the samples deformed up to 20% and 60% thickness reduction are depicted in Fig. 4(a) and (b), respectively. For the lower strain, the microstructure consists of rather equiaxed austenitic grains and deformation twins. It must be emphasized that, according to the references [12,31,32], the intersection of deformation twins is a preferential site for nucleation of SIM. In addition, it can be noticed the presence of elongated islands of δ- ferrite parallel to the RD. For the 60% cold-rolled condition (Fig. 4 (b)) the microstructure consists of elongated grains aligned with the RD. Deformation twins, shear bands as well as S-bands are