Property profile development during wire extrusion and wire drawing of magnesium alloys AZ31 and ZX10

This paper deals with the impact of the wire manufacturing process on the mechanical property development of two magnesium alloys, AZ31 and ZX10. For this study, wires were produced with different diameters of up to 0.2 mm via direct one-step extrusion as a hot forming route and were directly compared to conventional cold drawing manufacturing routes with diameters up to 0.3 mm and associated heat-treatment. The alloy dependent microstructure development is resolved with respect to the underlying recrystallization mechanisms, which determines the texture development and concurrently the strength and ductility properties of the wires. The experimental results clearly show that the manufacturing process, the degree of deformation (wire diameter) as well as the alloy itself have a major impact on the texture development and mechanical properties of the wires. While AZ31, does not enable a strong impact on the microstructure development, ductility in ZX10 is enhanced with a concurrent weak texture development due to adjusted dynamic recrystallization during hot forming. In contrast, such microstructures cannot be adjusted in the cold forming routes due to static recrystallization. However, it is possible to improve of the properties significantly by drawing, which is limited by the first two drawing passes.