Novel continuous forging extrusion in a one-step extrusion process for bulk ultrafine magnesium alloy

Highly-uniform ultrafine Mg-3Al-1Zn alloy was successfully fabricated by a simple conventional extrusion method called continuous forging extrusion (CFE). After CFE, the average grain size of Mg-3Al-1Zn alloy was refined to 0.6 mu m. The ultra-fine grain (UFG) AZ31 alloy exhibited an excellent combination of yield strength of 307 MPa and ductility of 26.3%. The improved mechanical properties were mainly attributed to grain boundary strengthening and texture weakening. The formation of dynamic recrystallized submicron grain in the CFE was also discussed.