Effect of Rolling Speed on Deformability and Microstructure in Rolling of AZ31B Magnesium Alloy

Magnesium alloys are expected to be used widely as structural materials because of their lowest density (1.8g/cm3) among all practical alloys and superior specific strength. However, magnesium alloys exhibit poor ductility due to its hcp structure and inactiveness of non-basal slip systems below 523K. Accordingly, magnesium alloy sheets had to be rolled at elevated temperature to avoid edge cracking and fracture during rolling. The present authors succeeded in single pass large draught rolling of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets below 473K without heating rolls by rolling at the speed higher than 1000m/min. The rolled and quenched sheets had fine recrystallized microstructure and exhibited excellent mechanical properties. It was found that the high speed rolling is a promising method not only for increasing productivity but also for controlling microstructures and improving mechanical properties. If the above mentioned advantages of high speed rolling can be drawn from the rolling at the speed lower than 1000m/min, it is possible to mass-produce magnesium alloy sheets having superior mechanical properties at lower cost. In this study, we tried to determine the lower limiting rolling speed at which we can obtain advantages of high speed rolling. We revealed that the thickness could be reduced about 60% by single pass operation even at 250m/min without heating rolls. The rolled and quenched sheets had equiaxed fine recrystallized microstructure. For example, the mean grain size of 2.1m was obtained in the AZ31B sheet rolled at 250m/min at room temperature to the reduction of 60%.