Effects of different cooling rates during two casting processes on the microstructures and mechanical properties of extruded Mg–Al–Ca–Mn alloy

In this study, Mg–3.6Al–3.4Ca–0.3Mn (wt.%) (which is denoted AXM4303) alloy ingots were prepared by two casting processes with different cooling rates: permanent mold (PM) casting, which has a lower cooling rate of 10–20 °C/s and direct chill (DC) casting, which has a higher cooling rate of 100–110 °C/s. Then, these two types of AXM4303 alloy ingots were hot extruded at 400 °C under the same conditions. The microstructures of the as-cast and extruded alloy samples were systematically investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) systems. The effects of the different cooling rates during the casting process on the microstructures and mechanical properties of the extruded AXM4303 alloy samples were evaluated. The results show that the strength of the extruded Mg–Al–Ca–Mn alloy can be substantially increased by microstructural control during the casting process. Because the cooling rate of the DC casting process is much faster than the cooling rate of PM casting, the DC-cast AXM4303 has the following properties: (i) the lamellar eutectic structure and dendrite cell size are significantly refined, (ii) the ordered monolayer GP zones enriched with Al and Ca nucleate with no growth, and (iii) most of the Mn remains in solution in the matrix. Thus, after hot extrusion, the DC-cast AXM4303 has finer dynamically recrystallized (DRXed) grain size, finer and more uniformly distributed fragmented eutectic particles, finer planar Al2Ca precipitates and finer spherical Al–Mn precipitates with higher number density than is present in the extruded PM-cast AXM4303. As a result, the extruded DC-cast sample showed a tensile 0.2% proof stress of 409 MPa, which is 105 MPa greater than that of the extruded PM-cast sample.