Combination of extrusion and artificial aging to strengthen AZ80 magnesium alloy

Conventional extrusion and artificial aging were combined to investigate the possibility of superposing precipitation strengthening on texture strengthening. Uniaxial tension test was used to characterize the mechanical properties and the static toughness values were calculated. Metallographic microscope and TEM were employed to observe the microstructures after extrusion and artificial aging. It is shown that remarkable discontinuous precipitation occurs after artificial aging at 150 degrees C. Although static toughness was slightly reduced, the yield strength was obviously increased and therefore good strengthening and toughening effect was achieved.