Cold stamping for AZ31B magnesium alloy sheet of cell phone house

Electric product house of magnesium alloy sheet is usually obtained by warm stamping owing to its poor plasticity and formability at room temperature. The formability of AZ31B magnesium alloy sheet can be improved by repeated unidirectional bending (RUB) process through control of (0002) basal texture. Compared with as-received sheet, the Erichsen value (IE) of the sheet underwent RUB process increases to 5.90 from 3.53 at room temperature. It is also confirmed that cell phone houses could be stamped successfully in crank press with AZ31B magnesium alloy sheets underwent RUB process. It provides an alternative to the electronics industry in the application of magnesium alloys.     

Influence of initial texture on formability of AZ31B magnesium alloy sheets at different temperatures

Repeated unidirectional bending (RUB) process was carried out to improve the texture of AZ31B magnesium alloy sheets. Influence of initial texture on formability of AZ31B magnesium alloy sheets at different temperatures was investigated. Compared with the as-received sheets, the limiting drawing ratio of the RUB processed sheets increased to 1.3 at room temperature, 1.5 at 50 °C and 1.7 at 100 °C, respectively. The improvement of the press formability at lower temperatures can be attributed to the texture modification, which led to a smaller Lankford value and a larger strain hardening exponent. However, the press formability of the sheet with a weakened basal texture has no advantage at higher temperature. This is due to much smaller r-value that results in severe thinning in thickness direction during the stamping process which is unfavorable to forming. Anyhow it is likely that the texture control has more effect on the press formability at lower temperature.     

An Experiment on Magnetic Pulse Uniaxial Tension of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Sheet at Room Temperature

Formability of magnesium alloys at room temperature or slightly elevated temperatures is low, and exhibiting poor resistance to strain localization and failure. However, it is possible to improve the formability of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet at high strain rate such as by electromagnetic forming (or magnetic pulse forming). In this study, experimental investigation of uniaxial tension of AZ31 sheet by magnetic pulse forming at room temperature was presented. The approximate rectangular flat spiral coil was employed to carry out the experiments. The specimens used in the tension test by magnetic pulse forming were same as the quasi-static uniaxial test. The samples were placed close to the outside of coil where an approximately homogenous magnetic field distribution prevailed. The experimental results indicate that the total elongation of AZ31 sheet improves about 37% compared with the quasi-static case. Non-uniform deformation occurs in the specimen. The maximum strain takes place on the area C, where is plotted on the specimen. The major and minor principal strains at most increase by approximately 112 and 96% under 5.12 kJ energy. The experimental results obtained in this study provide the fundamentals for the investigation of high speed forming of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets.     

Mechanical Characteristics of Superplastic Deformation of AZ31Magnesium Alloy

As the lightest constructional metal on earth, magnesium (and its alloys) offers a great potential for weight reduction in the transportation industry. Many automotive components have been already produced from different magnesium alloys, but they are mainly cast components. Production of magnesium outer body components is still hindered by the material’s inferior ductility at room temperature. Magnesium alloys are usually warm-formed to overcome this problem; however, it was observed that some magnesium alloys exhibits superior ductility and superplastic behavior at higher temperatures. More comprehensive investigation of magnesium’s high temperature behavior is needed for broader utilization of the metal and its alloys. In this work, the high temperature deformation aspects of the AZ31B-H24 commercial magnesium alloy are investigated through a set of uniaxial tensile tests that cover forming temperatures ranging between 23 and 500 °C, and constant true strain rates between 2 × 10⁻⁵ and 2.5 × 10⁻² s⁻¹. The study targets mainly the superplastic behavior of the alloy, by characterizing flow stress, elongation-to-fracture, and strain rate sensitivity under various conditions. In addition, the initial anisotropy is also investigated at different forming temperatures. The results of these and other mechanical and microstructural tests will be used to develop a microstructure-based constitutive model that can capture the superplastic behavior of the material. This article was presented at the AeroMat Conference, International Symposium on Superplasticity and Superplastic Forming (SPF) held in Seattle, WA, June 6–9, 2005.     

Formability of a more randomly textured magnesium alloy sheet: Application of an improved warm sheet formability test

The warm formability of three sheet magnesium alloys was measured using the OSU formability test adapted for testing at elevated temperatures under isothermal conditions. The adapted test is shown to reliably enforce plane strain tension over a significant fraction of the sample, thus providing an assessment of FLD(0), typically the minimum major strain value on a forming limit diagram. By mathematically modeling the strain as a function of punch displacement, a case is made that the punch displacement itself provides an expedient approach to ranking the relative formability of sheet metals. Combined with knowledge of the constitutive behavior of the material, the punch displacement–strain relationship provides an explanation for the observed shape of the punch load versus displacement curves. OSU formability test results show that a new magnesium sheet alloy, yttrium-containing ZW41, is significantly more formable than traditional magnesium alloys AZ31 and ZK10. The improvement is linked to a more random texture in the new alloy, which diminishes the tendency for gross, catastrophic shear instability typical of the strongly textured traditional alloys.     

Experimental and numerical study of warm deep drawing of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet

Warm forming of magnesium alloy sheet has attracted more and more attention in recent years. The formability of magnesium alloy sheet at elevated temperature depends on appropriate processes, and the fabrication of high-performance sheet. In this research, an AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet with excellent performances is fabricated by the cross-rolling and the uniform annealing treatments. The uniaxial tensile tests are conducted using a Gleeble 3500 thermal–mechanical simulator, and the mechanical properties of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet are analyzed. Finally, some limiting drawing ratio (LDR) experiments are performed. The experiments show that the LDR can reach 2.0 at the forming temperature of 150 °C and the drawing velocity of 15 mm/s. A warm deep drawing process is also simulated by the finite element method. The influences of drawing temperature and blank holder force on the formability are numerically investigated. The simulation demonstrated that variable blank holder force technology can improve the LDR from 3.0 to 3.5, and decrease the wall thinning ratio from 15.21% to 12.35%.     

Formability of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets at warm working conditions

Fine-grained AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets were prepared through hot-rolling process. To investigate the mechanical properties of the sheets, uniaxial tensile tests were conducted at various temperatures and strain rates. The formability of AZ31 alloy sheets at warm working conditions was evaluated by limit drawing ratio (LDR) tests and limit dome height (LDH) tests at temperatures from 50 to 240 °C. It is demonstrated that LDR increases remarkably with temperatures, whilst LDH does not seem to increase much with temperatures. The maximum LDR reaches 2.65 at a punch speed of 30mm/min at 200 °C, whereas the maximum LDH is only 10.8 mm, showing good deep drawability and poor stretchability of AZ31 alloy sheets. In addition, punch speeds and punch temperatures were found to have significant effects on the deep drawability of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets.     

Limiting strains of sheet metals obtained by pneumatic stretching at elevated temperatures

As uniaxial tensile testing fails to represent the actual loading case in sheet metal forming, evaluation of limiting strains is largely based on forming limit diagrams (FLDs) produced by the Marciniak and Nakazima methods. The accuracy of these methods is subject to uncertainties of the actual deformation state and friction conditions. In addition, they are impractical for studying formability at elevated temperatures, which is of prime importance in forming lightweight alloys. This work presents a detailed systematic methodology for assessing formability and limiting strains by pneumatic sheet metal stretching. The proposed approach is demonstratively applied to the AZ31 magnesium alloy at various conditions.     

Comparative study of the deformation behavior of hexagonal magnesium–lithium alloys and a conventional magnesium AZ31 alloy

Specimens of a conventional magnesium AZ31 alloy and a binary α-solid solution Mg4Li alloy with similar starting textures and microstructure were subjected to plane strain deformation under various deformation temperatures ranging from 298 K to 673 K. Lithium addition to magnesium exhibited remarkable room temperature ductility improvement owing to enhanced activity of non-basal slip, particularly, 〈c + a〉-slip mode. Furthermore, the addition of lithium to magnesium seemed to reduce the plastic anisotropy, typical for commercial magnesium alloys. This was evident in the flow curves and texture development obtained at 200 °C and 400 °C. At 400 °C prismatic slip gains strong influence in accommodating the imposed deformation. In terms of thermal stability against microstructure coarsening at elevated temperatures, the lithium containing alloy undergoes significant grain growth following recrystallization.     

Cold stamping formability of AZ31B magnesium alloy sheet undergoing repeated unidirectional bending process

The repeated unidirectional bending (RUB) process was carried out on an AZ31B magnesium alloy in order to investigate its effects on the cold stamping formability. The limiting drawing ratio (LDR) of the RUB processed magnesium alloy sheet with an inclination of basal pole in the rolling direction can reach 1.5 at room temperature. It was also confirmed that cell phone housings can be stamped successfully in crank press using the RUB processed AZ31B magnesium alloy sheet. The improvement of the stamping formability at room temperature can be attributed to the texture modifications, which led to a lower yield strength, a larger fracture elongation, a smaller Lankford value (r-value) and a larger strain hardening exponent (n-value).     

轧制工艺对AZ31B镁合金薄板组织与性能的影响

研究了轧制温度和轧制速度对AZ31B镁合金薄板微观组织演变和力学性能的影响。结果表明,轧辊加热有利于镁合金薄板成型;AZ31B镁合金在低温或低速轧制时薄板纵向组织为大量的切变带,切变带区域包含大量孪晶组织,横向组织为含极少量孪晶的等轴晶组织;在轧制温度为400℃和轧制速度为16m/min轧制时,由于动态再结晶,横纵截面组织均为等轴晶。AZ31镁合金薄板的最佳轧制制度为轧辊温度为70℃、轧制温度为400℃、轧制速度为6m/min,此工艺轧制的薄板横向抗拉强度、屈服强度和伸长率分别为350MPa、300MPa和12%,纵向为345MPa、290MPa和11.2%,纵向与横向性能差别明显减小。     

Improvement of formability of Mg–Al–Zn alloy sheet at low temperatures using differential speed rolling

The differential speed rolling (DSR) with a roll speed ratio of 1.167 was carried out on an AZ31B magnesium alloy in order to investigate its effects on the formability. Compared with the normal rolled sheet exhibiting approximately the same average grain size, the Erichsen values of the DSR processed sheet with an inclination of basal pole in the rolling direction significantly increased by about 1.5 and 1.9 times at room temperature and at 423 K, respectively. The deep-drawing temperature limit for a drawing ratio of 1.5 was also lowered from 443 K to 423 K. The improvement of the press formability at low temperatures can be attributed to the texture modifications, which led to a lower 0.2% proof stress, a larger uniform elongation, a smaller Lankford value and a larger strain hardening exponent.     

Room Temperature Ductility and Microstructure of Magnesium AZ31B Sheet

Formability of wrought magnesium alloys at room temperature or slightly elevated temperatures is modest, reaching about 20% elongation in a tension test and exhibiting poor resistance to strain localization and failure. The hexagonal close packed structure of Mg has few active slip systems at lower forming temperatures, limiting ductility and reducing applications in auto body structures. Much greater levels of ductility can be reached at higher temperatures (typically >300 °C), but this is expensive and inconvenient for a high-volume production environment. Tension testing and biaxial forming of annealed AZ31B magnesium alloy sheets were done at room temperature to various levels of strain. High-resolution electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) was used to measure twin fraction and dislocation density, in order to find relationships between strain and potential failure locations within the microstructure. Twin fractions were found to have a weak positive correlation to uniaxial and biaxial tensile strain, while dislocation density was found to correlate more strongly with uniaxial tensile strain.     

镁合金薄板连续铸轧技术研究

优质超薄的镁合金宽幅薄板市场需求巨大,但镁合金的室温塑性加工能力较差,水平连铸生产的镁合金薄板存在缺陷。本文通过对AZ31镁合金薄板连续铸轧技术研究,得出水平连铸后二次冷却是非常有效的控制晶粒尺寸的方法,改善了连铸镁板质量。轧前经预热处理和多道次轧制,可以使晶粒形成动态再结晶,使晶粒细化,是取得良好薄板的先决条件。经过连续铸轧可以得到优质超薄超宽的镁合金薄板带材。     

Effect of temperature,strain rate and fibre orientation on the plastic flow behaviour and formability of AZ31 magnesium alloy

The sheet formability of AZ31 magnesium alloy has been widely investigated by means of uniaxial tensile and hemispherical punch tests, performed at different temperatures and strain rates, using samples with different fibre orientations. The results of the uniaxial tensile tests were analysed in terms of flow curves, ductility and microstructural evolution. They show that the flow stress decreases and ductility increases as temperature rises and strain rate reduces; the ductility is almost independent of the fibre orientation that, however, slightly affects the flow stress values. The formability, described by the forming limit curves (FLCs), improves with increasing temperature and decreasing strain rate. Moreover, formability along the rolling direction (RD) is higher than that along the transversal one (TD), even if the FLCs obtained along the TD have a larger extension in the drawing side than the ones along the RD. Such behaviours were related to the constitutive parameters and microstructure developed during deformation.     

Rate and Orientation Dependence of Formability in Fine-Grained AZ31B-O Mg Alloy Thin Sheet

Uniaxial tension and press forming tests were carried out at two different strain rates and temperatures to investigate the formability of fine-grained AZ31B-O Mg alloy thin sheet. Formability parameters were determined by tensile test results. The tensile properties and formability parameters were correlated with the forming limit diagrams. The present work focused on the effects of loading orientation and deformation rate on formability. Anisotropic behaviors were observed in the mechanical properties. Maximum strengths were obtained in the direction perpendicular to the rolling direction (RD). It can be concluded that the formability of the rolled fine-grained AZ31B-O Mg alloy sheet can be influenced by loading orientation and deformation rate. Stretch formability can be enhanced at a higher deformation rate, resulting from a lower anisotropy and a higher work hardening effect. In contrast, the drawing processes can be performed at a lower deformation rate to take advantage of a higher anisotropic behavior. Specimens with the RD parallel to the major strain in the press forming tests can enhance stretch formability, whereas specimens with the RD perpendicular to the major strain can improve deep-drawability.     

不同工艺状态下AZ31B镁合金热压缩变形行为研究

镁合金在热加工过程中的变形机制复杂,且容易受到材料初始工艺状态和变形条件影响,因此呈现出不同的应力应变关系。采用铸态和变形态的AZ31B作为研究对象,通过Gleeble-1500获取坯料的应力应变曲线随温度和应变率的变化关系,基于Arrhenius双曲正弦型函数构建两种不同工艺状态下镁合金的本构模型,分析初始加工状态对镁合金应力应变关系及变形机制的影响。实验结果表明：当应变速率大于0.1s_^-1,变形态镁合金在低温下由于变形织构及大量孪生产生而出现45°剪切断裂;在高温和低应变速率下两种工艺状态的镁合金变形机制相同,应力应变曲线基本相似;变形态镁合金的硬化指数n及变形激活能Q相比铸态镁合金更低。     

Influence of anisotropy of the magnesium alloy AZ31 sheets on warm negative incremental forming

Single point incremental forming of the magnesium alloy AZ31 sheets, which were fabricated by hot extrusion, slab + hot/cold rolling, strip-casting rolling and cross-rolling, respectively, was investigated at elevated temperatures. The results show that the anisotropy of the sheets fabricated by casting slab + hot/cold rolling and cross-rolling is not remarkable, and the formability is improved significantly. The circular, square and rotary cone parts were performed with satisfactory surface quality and without any microcracks successfully, and which is superior to those of the extruded sheet and the one-way rolled sheet. Therefore, anisotropy of the sheets has remarkable effects on the surface quality of the formed parts, and the effect becomes weakened with increasing temperature. It is proposed that cross-rolling sheet is much more suitable for warm SPIF process.     

Development of new magnesium based alloys and their nanocomposites

In the present study, 1 and 2 wt.% of aluminum were successfully incorporated into magnesium based AZ31 alloy to develop new AZ41 and AZ51 alloys using the technique of disintegrated melt deposition. AZ41-Al₂O₃ and AZ51-Al₂O₃ nanocomposites were also successfully synthesized through the simultaneous addition of aluminum (1 and 2 wt.%, respectively) and 1.5 vol.% nano-sized alumina into AZ31 magnesium following same route. Alloy and composite samples were then subsequently hot extruded at 400 °C and characterized. Microstructural characterization studies revealed equiaxed grain structure, reasonably uniform distribution of particulate and intermetallics in the matrix and minimal porosity. Physical properties characterization revealed that addition of both aluminum and nano-sized alumina reduced the coefficient of thermal expansion of monolithic AZ31. The presence of both Al and nano-sized Al₂O₃ particles also assisted in improving overall mechanical properties including microhardness, engineering and specific tensile strengths, ductility and work of fracture. The results suggest that these alloys and nanocomposites have significant potential in diverse engineering applications when compared to magnesium AZ31 alloy.