The Production of Powder Metallurgy Hot Extruded Mg-Al-Mn-Ca Alloy with High Strength and Limited Anisotropy

Rapidly solidified Mg-Al-Mn-Ca alloy produced by Spinning Water Atomization Process (SWAP) was hot extruded into rectangular bars, from which tensile and compression samples have been cut at 0°, 45° and 90° from the extrusion direction to study their anisotropy. Electron Back Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) has been used to investigate the texture evolution during the hot extrusion process. Both the Schmid factor and the intensity of the basal plane in the pole figure have been evaluated and correlated to the mechanical properties. Results have shown that the extruded rods exhibit high strength and limited anisotropy compared to many previously reported values for magnesium alloys. The reasons for that limited anisotropy were both the fine grained micro structure of the extruded material and the transverse component of the texture evolution.