Achieving a weak basal texture in a Mg–6Al–3Sn alloy by wave-shaped die rolling

Highlights: • Proposing an innovative rolling approach that involving a wave-shaped die during rolling. • Achieving a weak basal texture and tilted basal peak in Mg–6Al–3Sn alloy sheets. • Developing Mg–6Al–3Sn alloy sheets that possess enhanced strain hardening rate and ductility. - Abstract: An innovative rolling approach was proposed to achieve weak basal texture in rolled Mg alloy sheets, by laying a wave-shaped die during rolling. It was shown that, Mg–6Al–3Sn (AT63) alloy sheets processed by this wave-shaped die rolling (labeled as WDR) exhibited basal textures with low intensity and tilted basal peak. A substantial basal texture weakening was found to occur during WDR after a single pass. Moreover, the WDRed alloy sheets exhibited basal texture gradients through the center to the surface, reflecting the asymmetric deformation mode of the sheets during rolling. In addition, WDR was effective to refine the grain size of AT63 alloy, from ~ 35 μm to ~ 10.3–11.5 μm. Tensile tests revealed that, the WDRed AT63 sheets presented much enhanced strain hardening ability (n = 0.295) and high elongation to failure (ε_f = 22.5%), as compared with the equivalent AT63 sheet rolled without wave-shaped die.