• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.70-75
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• 2012

This study is related to the laser weldability of AZ31B magnesium alloy, an all-purpose wrought alloy with good strength and ductility. In general, AZ31B is classified into AZ31B-H24 and AZ31B-O depending on temper designation. Thus, in this study, the laser weldability of AZ31B-H24 and AZ31B-O was investigated and compared. CW Nd:YAG laser was used to produce bead and butt joints. And the effects of welding conditions on the weldability of these joints were examined in detail. As a result of this study, AZ31B-H24 was found to have thinner oxide film and smaller grain size compared with AZ31B-O. Due to such difference, in bead welding, AZ31B-H24 had more wide welding range for full penetration compared with AZ31B-O. Furthermore, it was also confirmed that AZ31B-H24 and AZ31B-O have different welding conditions to obtain stable keyhole in butt welding.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.190-195
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• 2012

This study aims to investigate and compare the microstructures and room temperature tensile properties for AZ91 and ECO-AZ91 (AZ91+0.3%CaO) alloys in as-cast, T4 and T6 states, respectively. In as-cast state, the ECO-AZ91 alloy has finer microstructure than the AZ91 alloy. The AZ91 alloy exhibits greater ductility, while YS and UTS are inferior to those of the ECO-AZ91 alloy. After T4 treatment, most of ${\beta}$ compounds disappear in the AZ91 alloy, whereas ${\beta}$ phase is still observed in the ECO-AZ91 alloy due to its enhanced thermal stability, resulting in lower values of ductility and UTS. In T6 state, YS and UTS are better in the ECO-AZ91 alloy.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.56-61
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• 2012

Magnesium alloy sheet which is commercially available in the market presently is AZ31B, a Mg-Al-Zn three elements alloy. AZ31B is used by being classified into AZ31B-H24 and AZ31B-O depending on temper designation. In this study, AZ31B-H24 and AZ31B-O alloy sheets with 1.25mm thickness were butt-welded using CW Nd:YAG laser. And the effect of materials on mechanical properties was investigated by tensile and hardness tests. As a result of this study, regardless of materials, the butt-welded joint did not show a significant difference in tensile strength and hardness values. However, compared with the basemetal, the AZ31B-O showed more outstanding mechanical properties than AZ31B-H24, and that is because H24 material lost the effect of work hardening during welding.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.193-198
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• 2011

Effect of CaO addition on age hardening response has been studied by using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and differential thermal analysis in AZ91 and CaO-containing ECO-AZ91 alloys. After solution treatment, the ${\beta}$($Mg_{17}Al_{12}$) phase formed during solidification mostly disappeared in the microstructure in the AZ91 alloy, whereas numerous ${\beta}$ precipitates containing Ca were still observed in the ECO-AZ91 alloy due to its enhanced thermal stability. The ECO-AZ91 alloy showed the delayed peak aging time and higher peak hardness compared with those of the AZ91 alloy. The activation energies for ${\beta}$ precipitation calculated by means of Kissinger method increased from 71.4 to 85.6 kJ/mole by the addition of CaO, which implies that CaO plays a role in reducing ${\beta}$ precipitation rate in the AZ91 alloy.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.160-166
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of combined addition of Ca and Y on the precipitation and age-hardening behavior of an extruded AZ91 alloy by conducting the aging treatment at 200 ℃ for hot-extruded AZ91 and AZ91-0.3Ca-0.2Y alloys. In the AZ91 alloy, many Mg₁₇Al₁₂ discontinuous precipitate (DP) bands formed during air cooling immediately after extrusion are present, whereas in the AZ91-0.3Ca-0.2Y alloy, a few DP bands and numerous Al₂Y, Al₈Mn₄Y, and Al₂Ca phase particles are distributed along the extrusion direction. The peak-aging time of the AZ91-0.3Ca-0.2Y alloy is 16 hours, twice that of the AZ91 alloy. Although both alloys have similar hardness before aging treatment, the hardness after peak-aging treatment (i.e., peak hardness) of the AZ91-0.3Ca-0.2Y alloy is higher than that of the AZ91 alloy, as 93.1 and 88.7 Hv, respectively. The microstructures of both peak-aged alloys comprise DPs and continuous precipitates (CPs). However, the peak-aged AZ91-0.3Ca-0.2Y alloy has a smaller amount of DPs and a larger amount of CPs than the peak-aged AZ91 alloy. Additionally, the inter-particle spacings of DPs and CPs in the former are significantly narrower than those in the latter. These results demonstrate that the addition of small amounts of Ca and Y to a commercial AZ91 alloy considerably affects the formation rate, size, and amount of CPs and DPs during aging and resultant age-hardening behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.260-268
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• 2002

The effects of calcium and silicon on microstructure and aging characteristics of AZ91 magnesium alloy during T5 treatment was investigated. The addition of 0.88% calcium or 0.25% silicon to AZ91 alloy made dendrite cell smaller. Especially, silicon is more effectively acted as refinement of the dendrite cell than calcium. It is due to that $Mg_2Si$ precipitated at the dendrite cell boundary or in the matrix during T5 treatment of Si added AZ91 alloy retarded the growth of the secondary phase. In the mean while, without inducing the precipitates containing calcium, calcium was segregated mainly around secondary phase such as $Mg_{17}Al_{12}$ and partially dissolved in ternary eutectic (Mg-Al-Ca) structure. In the AZ91 alloy containing both silicon and calcium, more finely distributed $Mg_2Si$ in matrix homogeneously and much finer microstructure were obtained than those containing silicon or calcium. Hence, An AZ91 containing both silicon and calcium was more effective to retarding the growth of the secondary phase than the other AZ91 alloy such as AZ91 alloy containing silicon or AZ91 alloy containing calcium.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.44-44
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• 2011

마그네슘 합금은 낮은 비중의 경량화 금속 소재이며, 주로 주조 주조재 형태로 상당한 기간 활용되어 왔으며, 최근에는 포스코에서 AZ31 합금으로 판재를 생산하면서 판재상의 마그네슘 소재의 응용이 본격화되고 있다. 포스코에서 판재로 생산되는 합금은 AZ31합금이 주종이며, AZ61 합금의 경우도 일부 생산이 시도되고 있으며, 향후 다양한 합금의 판재의 개발이 진행될 예정이다. 마그네슘 합금은 화학적 활성이 커서 내식성 확보를 위한 표면처리가 필수적이며, 내식성의 확보가 상업적 적용을 위하여 필수적이다. 기존의 마그네슘 합금의 표면처리 방법은 주로 AZ91D의 다이캐스팅재에 집중되어 왔으며, 포스코에서 생산되는 AZ31의 스트립 캐스팅재의 표면처리는 합금의 차이로 인하여 새롭게 공정이 개발되어야 한다. AZ31 마그네슘 합금 판재는 경량화가 요구되는 분야에 사용되는 것을 목표로 설계되어 상업화가 추진되고 있으며, 이의 적용을 위해서는 마그네슘 판재의 내부식성을 제어하는 표면처리 공정이 필수적이다. 표면처리에서는 강판 및 알루미늄판재의 표면처리 공정에 이용되는 화성처리-전착도장 공정에 따라야 하겠지만, 산 용액에 매우 취약한 마그네슘 소재의 특성상 같은 처리 조건을 적용하기 어렵다. AZ31 마그네슘의 합금의 표면처리에서 자동차 공정에 적합한 화성처리는 본격적으로 연구되어 있지 않으며, 합금의 차이에 따른 표면거동이 다른 경향을 보인다. 자동차용 표면처리에서 AZ31에 적합한 화성처리 단일 공정을 확보하는 것이 중요하며, 또한 Al-Mg, Mg-Mg계 등 시스템 구성에 따른 연구개발이 필요할 것이다. 본 발표에서는 AZ31 판재를 이용한 자동차 부품 가공에서 고려하여야 하는 표면처리 이슈에 대하여 논하고자 한다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.32-32
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• 2015

Electrophoretic paint (E-paint) was investigated on four different magnesium substrates: as-extruded AZ61 (AZ61), heat-treated AZ61 (AZ61-H), as-extruded TZ61 (TZ61) and heat-treated TZ61 (TZ61-H), to elucidate the effect of heat treatment and alloying elements on the deposition and corrosion resistance of E-paint. It was found that, a rapid increase of voltage, indicating that the deposition of E-paint had started, was observed after an induction time of 0.39 min for AZ61-H, 0.43 min for AZ61, 0.51 min for TZ61-H and 0.58 min for TZ61. The amount of E-paint deposited on the four samples was approximately similar, but the electrical charge used for the deposition process on the heat-treated samples was smaller than that on the as-extruded samples. The current efficiencies of E-paint on AZ samples (AZ61 and AZ61-H) were higher than those of TZ samples (TZ61 and TZ61-H), and on the heat-treated samples were higher than on as-extruded samples. All E-paintings on the four magnesium substrates had an excellent adhesion without any paint detached by tape peel-test. However, many large blisters were formed on the surface of AZ samples, and none, or very small blisters were observed on TZ samples after immersion test in DI-water for 500 h at $40^{\circ}C$. Under salt spray test (SST) conditions, E-paint on AZ samples showed blistering adjacent to scribes, while blistering of E-paint occurred on intact areas of TZ samples. The E-paint on heat-treated samples showed much better corrosion resistance than that on as-extruded samples. The ranking of greater to lesser corrosion resistance of the E-paint on these four different magnesium substrates is indicated by the order: AZ61-H > AZ61 > TZ61-H > TZ61.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.53-57
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• 2004

Friction stir weldability of AZ31B-H24, AZ61A-F and AZ91C-F Mg alloys were studied using microstructural observation and mechanical tests. The microstructure of stir zone(SZ) was coarse in AZ31B-H24 alloy whereas it was very fine both in AZ61A-F and AZ91C-F alloys. The hardness of SZ was remarkably increased by very fine recrystallized grains both in AZ61A-F and AZ91C-F alloys. On the other hand, the hardness of SZ was decreased in AZ31B-H24 due to the coarse microstructure. In SZ, AZ91C-F alloy showed very high hardness values because of dispersion hardening of $Mg_{17}$Al$_{12}$($\beta$ phase) and Al solid solution hardening. Because of more $Mg_{ 17}Al_{12}($\beta$ phase)$ intermetallic compounds, Mg alloy with high Al content showed poor mechanical properties.s.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.80-86
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• 2013

Magnesium alloys of AZ31 containing (0.5, 1, 1.5) wt.% of initially added CaO particles were cast in air, and their oxidation behavior was studied at $450-650^{\circ}C$ in air. The initially added CaO particles either decomposed to dissolve in the ${\alpha}$-Mg matrix or precipitated as $Al_2Ca$ along the grain boundaries of the matrix during casting. The ignition temperatures were $565.4^{\circ}C$ for AZ31, $608.6^{\circ}C$ for AZ31+0.5 wt.%CaO, and $689.7^{\circ}C$ for AZ31+1 wt.%CaO. No ignition occurred for AZ31+1.5 wt.%CaO up to $700^{\circ}C$, displaying good oxidation resistance. The CaO-rich oxide scales that formed on the surface of the AZ31+(0.5, 1, 1.5) wt.%CaO alloys improved the oxidation resistance of AZ31 alloys.