Influence of Al and Ca on the Ductility of Mg–Al–Ca Alloys

Abstract

Magnesium and its alloys offer huge potential for lightweight applications. However, many Mg alloys suffer from limited room‐temperature formability. It has previously been shown that the addition of aluminium and calcium to Mg can improve ductility. Therefore, in the present work, it is aimed to systematically vary the alloying content of Al and Ca and to study their effects on the slip system activity and crystallographic texture after rolling and recrystallization. In the results, it is shown that all investigated ternary alloys in the range of 1–2 wt% Al and 0.005–0.5 wt% Ca have an increased ductility (in the range of 10–17% increase compared to pure Mg), whereas the binary Mg–Al and Mg–Ca alloys suffer from limited ductility (10% tensile elongation) and strength (175 MPa ultimate tensile strength). Non‐basal and especially <c + a>‐slip is active in all compositions (in 15–33% of the grains examined). Basal‐type textures are observed for all compositions, but with significantly weaker basal peak intensities for Ca‐containing samples when compared to pure Mg. The combination of activation of the <c + a> slip system and texture weakening is discussed as being responsible for the improved ductility of the ternary Mg–Al–Ca alloys.