WE43 magnesium alloy - material for challenging applications

Abstract

WE43 magnesium alloy is a commercial light-weight material developed for application at temperatures up to 250◦C. This alloy is also considered for applications in medicine as a biodegradable material. The present study provides microstructure characterization and related mechanical properties of the WE43 alloy prepared by different processing techniques including casting, extrusion, rotary swaging and heat treatment. Results indicate huge differences in observed microstructures, such as precipitation of secondary phases, grain coarsening, texture formation and also concomitant changes of mechanical properties, such as tensile yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, compressive yield strength, ultimate compressive strength and elongation to fracture. Although this material is well-known, WE43 prepared in this study by a combination of extrusion and rotary swaging offered highly improved mechanical properties, including a tensile yield strength of 370 MPa and elongation of 15 %. Such a combination of values is rarely seen in literature and is not generally offered for commercially produced materials although both preparation methods are easily commercially available.