Study on the hot deep drawing performance and microstructural evolution of AZ91D magnesium alloy sheets

Abstract

Magnesium alloys are attractive because of their low density and high specific strength and stiffness; however, secondary phase strengthening and the low number of slip systems lower formability especially for the strongest magnesium alloys such as AZ91D. The formability of AZ91D sheets is investigated through orthogonal experiments, which show that AZ91D has no deep drawing properties at room temperature and that plastic forming is only possible under hot forming conditions. When the temperature is increased from room temperature to 400 °C, the limiting drawing ratio of the sheet increases significantly to 1.91, and the thinning rate reaches a minimum value of 6% at approximately 400 °C because of the improved plastic flowability. The optimum process parameters for hot deep drawing are a temperature of 400 °C, blank holder force of 5 kN, and punch speed of 3 mm s−1. The microstructural evolution shows that plastic deformation of the AZ91D magnesium alloy at high temperatures is markedly accommodated by twinning and that, with heating, this twinning deformation mechanism is activated and overcomes the hindrances of the reinforcing phases to achieve better forming properties.