Processing of Zn-3Mg alloy by equal channel angular pressing for biodegradable metal implants

Zn-based alloys have been studied as new biodegradable metals owing to its slower corrosion rate compared to mg-based alloys and its high potential for mechanical properties improvement. the present work attempts to improve mainly the mechanical properties of a eutectic zn-3mg alloy via equal channels angular pressing (ecap). cast zn-3mg alloy was homogenized at 370 °c for 15 h and quenched in water before subjected to 2 steps ecap process. results showed that the process decreases the alloy's grain size from 48 µm in the as cast to 1.8 µm after 2-passes of ecap. a remarkably increase of yield strength,tensile strength and elongation was achieved from 65 mpa,84 mpa and 1.3% (as cast) to 205 mpa,220 mpa and 6.3% (2-ecap),respectively. corrosion rate of the alloy was fairly altered from 0.30 mm/year (as cast) to 0.24 mm/year (2-ecap). the combination of homogenization and ecap is therefore viewed as a potential process to improve mechanical properties of zn-mg alloys. © 2017 the authors