Texture Formation and Room-Temperature Formability of Rolled Mg-Zn-Ce Alloys

The texture formation behaviors of rolled and subsequently annealed Mg-1.5 mass%Zn-0.2 mass%Ce alloy, whose texture was characterized by a split of basal planes in the transverse direction (TD-split texture), were investigated by electron back-scattering diffraction analysis. When the rolling temperature was set to 723K, the basal poles of the as-rolled specimen exhibited tilted distribution toward the TD, and the TD-split texture appeared more significantly after annealing. Grains with the TD-split texture component were observed to construct some aggregates in the annealed specimen rolled at 723 K. It was observed that the aggregates of the grains with the TD-split texture component in the annealed specimen were created by the subdivision of the matrix grains by the fragments of twins. Activation of non-basal slips such as prismatic < a > slips was suggested to be related to the reorientation of grains with the TD-split texture component. In addition, room temperature formability of rolled Mg-Zn-Ce alloys was investigated by conical cup tests and deep drawing tests. In the conical cup tests, significant conical cup value, which corresponds to aluminum alloys, was obtained in the Mg-1.0Zn-0.2Ce and Mg-2.0-0.2Ce alloys. In the deep drawing tests, the large drawing ratio of 1.8 was obtained in the Mg-1.5Zn-0.2Ce alloy, when the blank holder force, punch speed, punch diameter, die hole diameter, shoulder radius of punch and lubricant was set to 2 kN, 5 mm/min, 33.0 mm, 35.6 mm, 3.0 mm and molybdenum disulfide paste, respectively.