The effects of Extrusion and Multi-Directional Forging (MDF) Processes on Microstructure, Shear Strength and Microhardness of AM60 Magnesium Aalloy

In the present study, AM60 magnesium alloy was casting and then subjected to hot extrusion process. Next, Multi Directional Forging (MDF) experiments with six pass numbers were conducted to investigate the influence of the operation on the microstructure and mechanical properties of these alloys. The shear punch test (SPT) and Vickers microhardness test were employed to evaluate the mechanical properties of the extruded and MDFed samples. Both the shear yield stress (SYS) and ultimate shear strength (USS) obtained from the shear punch test increased just after two passes but decreased with further pressing, although it was expected that the grains became finer with increasing the pass number. After two passes USS increased from 121.58 MPa to 142.42 MPa. This rise and fall indicates that texture softening overcame the strengthening effects of the grain refinement. The Vickers microhardness was measured across the cross sections of the extruded and MDFed samples, the results of this test also confirms that rise and fall procedure. The average microhardness of the extruded and MDFed samples were found to be respectively 73.50, 85.93, 82.26 and 77.83 HV for the extruded and 2,4 and 6 passes of MDFed, which confirms SPT results. Optical micrographs showed that processing by MDF reduces the grain size from 11.22 to 1.91 µm after 6 passes.