Development of Manufacturing Processes for Magnesium Sheet

Although casting is still the dominant manufacturing process of magnesium components, to open new application opportunities a quality sheet as a semi-finished product is required. At present, applications for sheet have been limited due to the poor cold formability of magnesium combined with the perceived high cost of the rolled products. In this report, research activities oriented towards development of advanced magnesium sheet technology at CanmetMATERIALS are described. They cover twin-roll casting and solid-state rolling trials both conducted using the pilot-scale equipment. Results are presented for commercial alloys and experimental compositions with additions of rare earths, in-house designed and manufactured. The present challenges are outlined, including those caused by high affinity of magnesium to oxygen and their effect on hardware performance and quality of produced strips and sheets.