Processing of commercial magnesium alloys by different-speeds-rolling technique

The commercial pure magnesium, AZ31 and AM60 alloys have been processed by a different-speeds-rolling (DSR) technique in order to estimate the possibility of producing high performance magnesium sheets by severe plastic deformation process. The experiment was carried out on a mill of which the rotation speed ratio of the upper roll to the lower roll could be varied from 1 to 1. 364. Temperature of the two rolls of the mill could also be automatically controlled from room temperature to 300 °C. The started billets with thickness of 10 mm were cut from the cast ingot. The rolling parameters such as preheating temperature of the billet, rolling reduction per pass, rotation speed ratio and temperature of the rolls were carefully designed depending on the processed magnesium alloy. Mechanical properties of the successfully rolled sheets with final thickness of about 1 mm were characterized, corresponding to microstructure development during the DSR-processing. The potential application of DSR to processing of magnesium alloys was discussed.