The formability of a thin sheet of Mg-8.5Li-1Zn alloy

The formability of an experimentally produced Mg-8.5 mass% Li-1 mass% Zn alloy sheet with a thickness of 0.6 mm is investigated. Uniaxial tension tests and some fundamental press-forming tests, such as deep drawing, bore expanding and the Erichsen test, are carried out at room temperature. It is found that the alloy sheet has a sufficiently high formability. The elongation in uniaxial tension tests reaches about 100% at comparatively low strain rates. The limiting drawing ratio was 2.2. It is remarkable that the strain-rate sensitivity exponent, m, is evaluated to be 0.064, which is a high value for room temperature. The numerical simulation shows that the strain-rate sensitivity has a bearing on the good formability. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.