Effect of annealing on the microstructures and properties of cold drawn Mg alloy wires

To prepare the biodegradable Mg alloy fine wires for the development of new biomedical Mg alloy implant devices, we investigated the static recrystallization behaviors of three kinds of Mg-rear earth (Gd, Y and Nd)-Zn alloys after intense cold drawing plastic deformation. The results demonstrate that all experimental alloys had good cold drawing formability, and showed similar static recrystallization kinetics with a recrystallization beginning temperature of ~300-350 °C, a complete recrystallization temperature of ~400-425 °C and a normal grain growth temperature ~450 °C. Additionally, the grain morphology and texture play important role in affecting the subsequent cold drawing performance: more uniform and regular recrystallized grains are helpful to improve the subsequent cold drawing performance, but intense cold-drawn deformation texture which was hardly modified by heat treatment is harmful to subsequent drawing processing.