Grain orientation

The grain orientation of polycrystalline materials is understood to mean the formation of pronounced crystallographic textures or preferred directions for the orientation of the crystallites , also called grains. An alignment can be such that all crystallites are aligned almost parallel with an edge or with a surface of the crystal lattice , or they are parallel in their entire alignment. Since the properties of a crystal generally depend on the direction in relation to the crystal lattice, better material properties can be achieved by aligning the crystals with the "best" direction in the direction of material use .