Manufacturing Technique of Magnesium Alloy Sheets by Powder Rolling

Abstract

Conventional manufacturing processes of metal and alloys sheets are rolling. The poor formability of magnesium alloys at room temperature makes rolling difficult. In the present paper, a manufacturing technique of sheets by powder rolling was employed to fabricate magnesium alloy sheets. The technique consisted of roll compaction, sintering, re-rolling and annealing. Powders of Mg-3 wt% Al mixed using a global mill were roll compacted into green sheets using two counter rotating rolls to the thickness of approximately 0.60 mm. Roll compacted green sheets were sintered at 823 K in argon atmosphere. Sintered green sheets were then re-rolled at ambient temperature to approximately 0.22 mm to obtain fully dense sheets. There was no significant edge cracking observed in the process of cold rolling. It is reasonable to believe that powder rolling is a promising technique for manufacturing magnesium alloys sheets.