Hot Rolling of ZK60 Magnesium Alloy with Isotropic Tensile Properties from Tubing Made by Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE)

In the present work, we utilized Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE), a solid-phase processing technique, to extrude hollow tubes of ZK60 Mg alloy. Hot rolling was performed on these as-extruded tubes (after slitting them longitudinally) to thickness reductions of 37%, 68%, and 93% to investigate their viability as rolling feedstock material. EBSD analysis showed the formation of twinned grains in the ShAPE processed material and a gradual re-orientation of the basal texture parallel to the extrusion direction with each rolling step. Moreover, an equiaxed grain size of 5.15 +/- 3.39 mu m was obtained in the ShAPE extruded material, and the microstructure was retained even after 93% rolling reduction. The rolled sheets also showed excellent tensile strengths and no mechanical anisotropy, a critical characteristic for formability. The unique microstructures developed and their excellent mechanical properties, combined with the ease of scalability of the process, make ShAPE a promising alternative to existing methods for producing rolling feedstock material.