Effect of Rolling Route on Microstructure and Tensile Properties of Twin-Roll Casting AZ31 Mg Alloy Sheets

Twin-roll casting AZ31 Mg alloy sheets have been fabricated by normal unidirectional-rolling, head-to-tail rolling, and clock-rolling, respectively. It has been demonstrated that head-to-tail rolling is the most effective to refine the microstructure and weaken the basal texture among the three rolling routes. Excellent integrated tensile properties can be obtained by the head-to-tail rolling. The yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and plastic elongation are 196 MPa, 301 MPa, and 28.9%, respectively. The strength can benefit from the fine grains (average value of 4.0 μm) of the AZ31 alloy processed by the head-to-tail rolling route, while the excellent plastic elongation is achieved owing to the weakened basal texture besides the fine grains. Results obtained here can be used as a basis for further study of some simple rolling methods, which is critical to the development of Mg alloys with high strength and plasticity.