Connected Process Design for Hot Working of a Creep-Resistant Mg–4Al–2Ba–2Ca Alloy (ABaX422)

With a view to design connected processing steps for the manufacturing of components, the hot working behavior of the ABaX422 alloy has been characterized for the as-cast and extruded conditions. In the as-cast condition, the alloy has a limited workability, due to the presence of a large volume of intermetallic phases at the grain boundaries, and is not suitable to process at high speeds. A connected processing step has been designed on the basis of the results of the processing map for the as-cast alloy, and this step involves the extrusion of the cast billet to obtain a 12 mm diameter rod product at a billet temperature of 390 °C and at a ram speed of 1 mm s⁻¹. The microstructure of the extruded rod has a finer grain size, with redistributed fine particles of the intermetallic phases. The processing map of the extruded rod exhibited two new domains, and the one in the temperature range 360–420 °C and strain rate range 0.2–10 s⁻¹ is useful for manufacturing at high speeds, while the lower temperature develops a finer grain size in the product to improve the room temperature strength and ductility. The area of the flow instability is also reduced by the extrusion step, widening the workability window.