Formability of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets at warm working conditions

Fine-grained AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets were prepared through hot-rolling process. To investigate the mechanical properties of the sheets, uniaxial tensile tests were conducted at various temperatures and strain rates. The formability of AZ31 alloy sheets at warm working conditions was evaluated by limit drawing ratio (LDR) tests and limit dome height (LDH) tests at temperatures from 50 to 240 °C. It is demonstrated that LDR increases remarkably with temperatures, whilst LDH does not seem to increase much with temperatures. The maximum LDR reaches 2.65 at a punch speed of 30mm/min at 200 °C, whereas the maximum LDH is only 10.8 mm, showing good deep drawability and poor stretchability of AZ31 alloy sheets. In addition, punch speeds and punch temperatures were found to have significant effects on the deep drawability of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets.