The processing of ultrafine-grained Mg tubes for biodegradable stents

An investigation was carried out on equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) and extrusion processing of a ZM21 Mg alloy to obtain an improved candidate material for the manufacturing of biodegradable Mg stents. Ultrafine-grain size billets of the ZM21 alloy were obtained by two-stage ECAP aimed at achieving an initial refining of the structure at 200 °C and then reaching the submicrometer grain size range by lowering the processing temperature down to 150 °C. The investigation revealed a significant improvement in the properties of the ECAP-treated samples compared with the starting coarse-grained ZM21 alloy. The 0.2% yield strength rose from 180 to 340 MPa after 150 °C ECAP processing, while maintaining a fairly high tensile ductility. The ultrafine ZM21 alloy billets were then used for the extrusion of stent precursors having the form of small-size tubes. The grain size after extrusion remained in the submicrometer range while the hardness was revealed to be significantly higher than that of the coarse-grained ZM21 Mg alloy. It was demonstrated that processing of biodegradable Mg stent having an ultrafine-grained microstructure by ECAP and low-temperature extrusion is feasible and that the obtained products feature promising properties.