Abstract: As-cast AM60 magnesium alloy ingot with grains coarser than those of as-extruded AZ series is more liable to produce cracks under ECAD with severe shear strain. A feasible scheme of equal channel angular deformation (ECAD) for as-cast AM60 magnesium alloy ingot was proposed in this paper. The tests were conducted on Instron machine with hydraulic back-force machine. Through analysing load vs displacement curves, the effects of ECAD processing conditions on deformability and microstructure of as-cast magnesium AM60 billets were discussed. During testing, the back-force employment was helpful to keep ECAD processing more stable. And with back-force, it was observed that the number of ECAD passes in different routes could tremendously affect the deformability and microstructure of magnesium specimens. It was concluded that ECAD processing is entirely feasible for as-cast magnesium AM60 alloy under severe shear strain, and back-force employment, multi-passes deformation and lubrication of graphite paper are the factors primarily beneficial to improvement of deformability and refinement of grained structure. This work provides a way to produce magnesium alloy with fine-grained structure directly from casting ingot by ECAD technique.

Key words: ECAD, AM60 magnesium alloy, Deformability, Metallography