Microstructural characteristics of an ultrafine grain metal processed with equal-channel angular pressing

Equal-channel angular pressing is a procedure for producing a fully dense material with an ultrafine grain size, typically in the submicrometer or nanometer range, by subjecting the material to a very high plastic strain. This paper describes the principle of equal-channel angular pressing and illustrates the capability of the technique by reference to a series of detailed experiments conducted on an Al-3%Mg solid solution alloy in which the grain size was successfully reduced by equal-channel angular pressing from an initial size of ~500 μm in the hot-rolled condition to a final size of ~0.2 μm.