Magnesium alloys show low deformability at low temperature because of hcp structure and inactiveness of basal slip. Manufacturing of thin sheet is difficult in industries. Some approaches, such as small-draft multi-pass rolling, intermediate annealing, isothermal rolling and high-speed rolling were proposed to overcome the deformability. However, small edge cracks are still formed on the sheet.
In this study, rolling speed of 1000m/min was employed to warm-roll AZ31B magnesium alloy in a single pass at different temperatures. The edge cracks formed after the rolling were classified into three main groups: minor, regular and zigzag edge cracks. ‘Crack contact length’ are introduced to explain the morphology of edge cracks. The results show that the critical reduction for crack initiation depends on the pre-heating temperature. The spacing between edge cracks increases linearly with the crack contact length regardless of roll diameter, speed and reduction. It is suggested that this approach is useful to understand the formation mechanism of edge cracks and to evaluate the rollability of magnesium alloys.
