Microstructure and performance of biodegradable magnesium alloy tubes fabricated by local-heating-assisted dieless drawing

Magnesium(Mg)alloy stents are expected to be the next generation of stents because of good biocompatibility and biodegradability.Compared with cold drawing,dieless drawing with local heating is an effective method for manufacturing the Mg alloy microtubes since a large reduction in area can be achieved in a single pass.However,the microstructure and properties of dieless drawn tubes have not been clarified,leading to the problems in practical application of dieless drawn tubes.In this study,the microstructure and performance of dieless drawn tubes are clarified.The results show that temperature and speed in the dieless drawing process are two factors in determining the grain size of dieless drawn tubes since decreasing the temperature or increasing the speed promotes the generation of fine-grained microstructure.Twins are also generated during the dieless drawing process,which 1)disintegrates grains leading to refinement and 2)causes Hall-Petch law effect on dieless drawn tubes.Tensile tests show that grain size is the main factor in determining the mechanical properties of dieless drawn tubes,namely,0.2%proof stress 135-180MPa,ultimate tensile strength(UTS)200-250MPa,and elongation 8-12%.In 0.9 wt%NaCl solution,localized corrosion is the key factor in initiating the corrosion of dieless drawn tubes,but refined grains and fewer twins can alleviate local corrosion.These results imply that dieless drawn tubes are promising in the clinical application of Mg alloy stents for cardiovascular disease.

Continuous observation of twinning and dynamic recrystallization in ZM21 magnesium alloy tubes during locally heated dieless drawing

Compared to cold drawing,dieless drawing has shown great potential for manufacturing biodegradable Mg alloy microtubes due to the large reduction in area acquired in a single pass.However,owing to the local heating and local deformation,the deformation mechanism during dieless drawing is not clear,and thus causing difficulties in controlling the microstructure of dieless drawn tubes.For the purpose of acquiring a desired microstructure.in this study the deformation mechanism of ZM21 Mg alloy tube was clarified by conducting continuous observation of the microstructural evolution during dieless drawing.The results show that both SRX and DRX occurred during dieless drawing.SRX occurred before the plastic deformation to soften dieless drawn tubes.With increase of feeding speed,the deformation mechanism changed accordingly:(1) At the low-speed of 0.02 mm/s,the deformation mechanism was dominated by twin-slip sliding,during which {10-12} tension twins were generated inside grains to accommodate the plastic deformation by changing the crystal orientation.(2) At the intermediate-speed of 2 mm/s,a twin-DRX process related to {10-12} tension twin was observed,which was characterized by the generation of abundant {10-12} tension twins and the evolution of misorientation angle of {10-12} tension twins.Moreover,the transformation from twin-DRX to CDRX can be observed at the late stage of plastic deformation,which was attributed to the inhomogeneous conditions of dieless drawing.(3) At the high-speed of 5 mm/s,a CDRX process was observed,during which grain boundary sliding and grain tilting were observed,in addition to the gradual rotation of subgrains.These results show that during dieless drawing,DRX is not only a temperature-dependent phenomenon,but also influenced by the variation of feeding speed.