Twin-Roll Casting as a Grain Refinement Method and Its Influence on the Microstructure and Deformation Behavior of an AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Wire

Due to a combination of casting and rolling in one process step, twin-roll casting is an effective grain refinement method. This study compares the direct-chill cast (DC) state and the twin-roll cast (TRC) state of an AZ31 magnesium alloy in different steps regarding the microstructure, deformation behavior, and mechanical properties. In the initial state, the TRC AZ31 exhibits a significantly finer grain size and a slight rolling texture compared to the DC AZ31. Therefore, the TRC materials exhibit higher strengths and ductility. After a short heat treatment of 400 °C and 12 h for the DC state and 460 °C and 15 min for the TRC state, cylindric compression tests of the heat-treated samples were conducted at different temperatures (300–400 °C) and strain rates (0.1–10 s−1). To reproduce the deformation behavior at higher strain rates, hot rolling tests (350 °C, 15 s−1) of the heat-treated samples were performed. For both alloys, discontinuous dynamic recrystallization and twinning-induced dynamical recrystallization could be detected. A fine grain size and similar strengths were present after five passes. The AZ31 TRC exhibited a higher ductility due to a higher texture intensity, as the stress direction corresponds to the rolling direction in the case of tensile testing.