Texture Formation and Room-Temperature Formability of Rolled Mg–Zn–Ce Alloys

Abstract

The texture formation behaviors of rolled and subsequently annealed Mg–1.5 mass%Zn–0.2 mass%Ce alloy, whose texture was characterized by a split of basal planes in the transverse direction (TD-split texture), were investigated by electron back-scattering diffraction analysis. When the rolling temperature was set to 723 K, the basal poles of the as-rolled specimen exhibited tilted distribution toward the TD, and the TD-split texture appeared more significantly after annealing. Grains with the TD-split texture component were observed to construct some aggregates in the annealed specimen rolled at 723 K. It was observed that the aggregates of the grains with the TD-split texture component in the annealed specimen were created by the subdivision of the matrix grains by the fragments of twins. Activation of non-basal slips such as prismatic < a> slips was suggested to be related to the reorientation of grains with the TD-split texture component. In addition, room temperature formability of rolled Mg–Zn–Ce alloys was investigated by conical cup tests and deep drawing tests. In the conical cup tests, significant conical cup value, which corresponds to aluminum alloys, was obtained in the Mg–1.0Zn–0.2Ce and Mg–2.0–0.2Ce alloys. In the deep drawing tests, the large drawing ratio of 1.8 was obtained in the Mg–1.5Zn–0.2Ce alloy, when the blank holder force, punch speed, punch diameter, die hole diameter, shoulder radius of punch and lubricant was set to 2 kN, 5 mm/min, 33.0 mm, 35.6 mm, 3.0 mm and molybdenum disulfide paste, respectively.