Benefits of Using Diamond Dies for Cold Alternate Drawing of Magnesium Alloys

Abstract

In recent years, due to its low density and high strength/weight ratio, magnesium alloy wires has been considered for application in many fields, such as welding, electronics, medical field (for production of stents). But for those purposes, we need to acquire wires with high strength and ductility. For that we purpose we proposed alternate drawing method, which is supposed to highly decrease the shearing strain near the surface of the wire after drawing, by changing the direction of the wire drawing with each pass and thus acquiring high ductility wires.We have done research on the cold alternate drawing of magnesium alloy wires, by conducting wire drawing of several magnesium wires and testing their strength, hardness, structure, surface and also finite element analysis, we have proven the increase of ductility at the expense of some strength.In this research we are looking to further improve the quality of the drawn wires by examining the benefits of using diamond dies over tungsten carbine dies. Using the alternate drawing method reduces the strength of the drawn wires and thus lowering their drawing limit. By using diamond dies we are aiming to decrease the drawing stress and further increase the drawing limit of the alternate drawn wires and also improve the quality of the finishing surface of the wires. With this in mind we are aiming to produce a good quality wire with low diameter, high ductility, high strength and fine wire surface.