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5 - I m p r o v i n g t h e c o l d r o l l a b i l i t y o f magnesium alloys H K L Technology - 2005

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Improving the cold rollability of magnesium alloys
Question: What mechanisms cause some magnesium alloys to be highly workable at room temperature, while most are not?

Introduction
The use of magnesium alloys has increased rapidly over the last decade, driven primarily by applications in the automotive and electronics industries. Magnesium has provided reductions in component weights, along with other advantages, such as improved mechanical damping and electromagnetic shielding. Most of the growth has been in cast alloys, while applications of wrought alloys have remained relatively rare. The main reason for this is magnesiums poor room temperature ductility (Figure 1). Rolling and forming at elevated temperatures increases the difculty and cost, making many potential applications unviable. The main reason for the poor room temperature ductility of most magnesium alloys is the difculty of activating slip systems other than those in the basal plane. Deformation perpendicular to the basal plane may be carried by twinning, but the most easily activated twinning mode in magnesium only operates when a tensile strain is imposed parallel to the c-axis of the crystal, not when the c-axis is compressed. During rolling, the typical texture that develops is one in which most grains have their c-axis parallel to the compression direction. Once this texture develops, roomtemperature deformation becomes very difcult and fracture follows with only small amounts of additional strain. There are a few magnesium alloys that have remarkably high room-temperature ductilities. However, these are either much too expensive or not nearly as strong as competing alloys. The key to a rapid expansion in the application of wrought magnesium alloys is the development of a low-cost alloy with the right combination of room-temperature ductility and strength. To do this requires a

Figure 1:
A plate of the most commonly used wrought magnesium alloy, AZ31, rolled to a 15% reduction in thickness at room temperature.

sound understanding of what makes some alloys much more ductile at room temperature than others and how these mechanisms are hindered in the higher strength alloys. EBSD was the ideal tool for this investigation, since it allowed detailed investigation of texture development and twinning, two key factors in determining magnesiums ductility. Previous work had linked the fracture of some magnesium alloy single-crystals to localisation of deformation in shear bands and suggested that these bands develop from doubly-twinned regions of the microstructure [1-3]. This deformation mechanism was compatible with microstructural observations on certain polycrystalline alloys [4]. The EBSD results presented here formed part of an investigation into the inuence of composition on this mechanism in polycrystalline alloys.

EBSD Analysis
Orientation maps were collected using EBSD on three different magnesium alloys rolled to different reductions in thickness. Details of the analysis are presented in Table 1. Table 1: Details of EBSD analysis

Sample preparation: Mechanically polished with nal polish using colloidal silica SEM type: FEG-SEM EBSD System: HKL CHANNEL5 with Nordlys II detector Accelerating voltage: 20 kV Probe Current: 0.3 nA

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A p p. 5 - I m p r o v i n g t h e c o l d r o l l a b i l i t y o f magnesium alloys H K L Technology - 2005

Results

(a) Mg HR

(b) Mg CR 30%

Legend

(c) Mg-0.2Ce HR

(d) Mg-0.2Ce CR 30%

Bulk texture measurements, taken using EBSD mapping with coarse step sizes, showed the texture of the Mg-0.2Ce alloy to be weaker than the other two alloys in the hot-rolled condition and remain weaker during cold-rolling (Figure 2). Note that the texture of the AZ31 alloy was measured at a lower reduction in thickness (15%) than the other two alloys (30%), since it fractured before a reduction of 30% was reached. An EBSD map taken on an area of the Mg-0.2Ce specimen with a ner step size showed that the deformation mechanism involving the formation of bands of doubly-twinned material was also active in this highly cold-rollable alloy (Figure 3). The inverse pole gure (IPF) map at the top of the gure shows that most grains have their c-axis approximately parallel to the sample normal direction (<0001>||Z0).

(e) AZ31 HR

(f) AZ31 CR 15%

Figure 2:
<0001> pole gures showing the textures of the three different alloys in the hot rolled state (left hand side) and after cold-rolling (right hand side).

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A p p. 5 - I m p r o v i n g t h e c o l d r o l l a b i l i t y o f magnesium alloys H K L Technology - 2005

Figure 3:
Formation of doubly-twinned bands in Mg-0.2Ce cold-rolled to 10% reduction in thickness. (a) Orientation map using the inverse pole gure colouring scheme shown in (b) overlaid on a band contrast map. (c) Band contrast map with primary twins marked in green, primary twins in red and secondary twins in yellow. Once these bands have formed, the material within the bands becomes favourably oriented for basal slip (Figure 4). Upon further rolling deformation will concentrate within these bands.

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A p p. 5 - I m p r o v i n g t h e c o l d r o l l a b i l i t y o f magnesium alloys H K L Technology - 2005

Figure 4:
Texture of material in the bands in the pure Mg sample coldrolled to 30% reduction The black areas have the c-axis inclined by 45 (+/- 20) from the ND towards the RD in (a) a clockwise direction and (b) an anticlockwise direction. RD-ND sections with RD parallel to the scale bar.

Conclusion
The deformation mechanism involving double-twinning and the development of shear bands from doubly-twinned regions appears to be active in the highly cold-rollable Mg-0.2Ce alloy as well as in the alloys that have poor room-temperature ductility. So it is not the absence of this mechanism that leads to the high rollability. However, the weaker texture of the Mg-0.2 Ce alloy will make slip in other regions of the microstructure easier, lessening the driving force for deformation to localise within the shear bands.

Answer: The highly workable Mg-0.2Ce alloy has a weaker bulk texture, lessening the driving force for localisation of deformation with shear bands.
References 1. Wonsiewicz, B. C. and B a c ko f e n , W. A . , Tra n s. M e t a l l . S o c . A I M E , 1 9 6 7 , 2 3 9 , 1 4 2 2 . 2. Kelley, E. W. and Hosfo r d , W. F. , J r. , Tra n s. M e t a l l . S o c . A I M E , 1 9 6 8 , 2 4 2 , 5 . 3. Hartt, W. H. and Reed- H i l l , R . E . , Tra n s. M e t a l l . S o c . A I M E , 1 9 6 8 , 2 4 2 , 1 1 2 7 . 4. Couli ng, S. L., Pashak, J. F. a n d S t u r ke y, L . , Tra n s. A S M , 1 9 5 9 , 5 1 , 9 4 . A c k n owledgement Th i s a p p l i c a t i o n n o t e i s b a s e d o n w o r k p u b l i s h e d i n B a r n e t t , N a v e a n d B e t t l e s, M a t e r i a l s Science and E n g i n e e r i n g A , 3 8 6 ( 2 0 0 4 ) , p p. 2 0 5 - 2 1 1 . H K L Te c h n o l o g y w o u l d l i ke t o t h a n k D r. M a t t h ew Barnett of D e a k i n U n i v e r s i t y a n d D r. C o l l e e n B e t t l e s o f C S I R O f o r p e r m i s s i o n t o u s e t h e r e s u l t s i n t his catalogue.

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