• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1048-1049
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• 2006

Rapidly solidified ribbon-consolidation processing was applied for preparation of high strength bulk Mg-Zn-Gd alloys. Mg alloys have been used in automotive and aerospace industries. Rapid solidification (RS) process is suitable for the development of high strength Mg alloys, because the process realizes grain-refinement, increase in homogeneity, and so on. Recently, several nanocrystalline Mg-Zn-Y alloys with high specific tensile strength and large elongation have been developed by rapidly solidified powder metallurgy (RS P/M) process. Mg-Zn-Y RS P/M alloys are characterized by long period ordered (LPO) structure and sub-micron fine grains. The both additions of rare earth elements and zinc remarkably improved the mechanical properties of RS Mg alloys. Mg-Zn-Gd alloy also forms LPO structure in -Mg matrix coherently, therefore, it is expected that the RS Mg-Zn-Gd alloys have excellent mechanical properties. In this study, we have developed high strength RS Mg-Zn-Gd alloys with LPO structure and nanometer-scale precipitates by RS ribbon-consolidation processing. $Mg_{97}Zn_1Gd_2$ and $Mg_{95.5}Zn_{1.5}Gd_3$ and $Mg_{94}Zn_2Gd_4$ bulk alloys exhibited high tensile yield strength (470 MPa and 525 MPa and 566 MPa) and large elongation (5.5% and 2.8% and 2.4%).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2008

A variety of minor alloying elements such as Zr, Sr, Y, and Gd were added to Mg-3%Zn-0.5%Sn base alloy to form various fine precipitates and their effects on the microstructure, tensile properties, and sheet metal formability were investigated. Various very fine precipitates along with fine second phases were observed by the additions. It was found that Zr or Gd additive has a role to suppress the grain coarsening of alloy sheets during the hot working process. The Zr-added alloy showed the highest tensile elongation at $250^{\circ}C$ whereas the Gd-added alloy exhibited the best sheet metal forming characteristics in terms of CCV (conical cup value) and spring-back tendency.