Magnesium is one of the lightest structural metals, offers excellent recyclability, and holds strong potential for a wide range of industrial uses. Despite these advantages, its application has remained limited so far. The main reason lies in its restricted formability, which causes conventional manufacturing processes—especially in wire production—to reach their limits quickly.
An international research project is addressing this challenge. Its goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the material behavior of the calcium-containing magnesium alloy ZAX210 across the entire process chain and based on this knowledge, to develop more efficient processing strategies. At the LKR Light Metal Competence Centre Ranshofen, part of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, simulation-based methods are used to analyze how microstructure and texture evolve from casting to wire drawing.
Limited Formability as a Key Challenge of Magnesium
As a particularly lightweight structural material, magnesium can significantly contribute to reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency in both industry and mobility. However, its broader industrial use is still restricted by limited formability, which results from its hexagonal crystal lattice. In complex forming operations and multi-stage process chains, factors such as temperature, forming speed, stress conditions, and texture development can negatively impact process stability and component performance.
In recent years, notable progress has been made through the development of new alloy concepts. In particular, the addition of calcium has been shown to enhance both formability and texture development. The Mg-Zn-Al-Ca alloy ZAX210 demonstrates significantly improved formability compared to conventional magnesium alloys, due to the targeted control of microstructure and recrystallization. Nevertheless, a comprehensive understanding of its behavior under real industrial conditions is still lacking.
Developing an Innovative Process Chain for ZAX210
The project ‘Material behaviour along the process chain of ZAX210 wire’ is the first to systematically investigate the production of magnesium wire based on the ZAX210 alloy. The focus is on a novel process chain that combines twin-roll casting (TRC), continuous rotary extrusion (CRE), and subsequent wire drawing.
TRC integrates casting and hot forming into a single step, enabling the production of a homogeneous starting material with an optimized microstructure. CRE, in turn, is a resource-efficient continuous forming process whose effects on microstructure and texture have not yet been fully explored.
By promoting dynamic recrystallization in a targeted manner and controlling texture development, the project aims to achieve improved formability alongside high mechanical performance. This opens up new application areas for magnesium wire, including medical technology and wire-based additive manufacturing.
LKR’s Contribution: Simulation Across the Process Chain in its Entirety
LKR contributes its extensive expertise in forming technologies as well as microstructure and texture simulation to the project. On the macroscopic level, individual process steps are modeled using adapted forming and extrusion simulations to systematically assess the influence of key process parameters.
At the same time, the LKR examines microstructure evolution along selected flow lines. This includes the analysis of grain morphology, phase proportions, texture changes, and recrystallization mechanisms. The Visco-Plastic Self-Consistent approach is applied, providing an efficient framework for describing anisotropic material behavior. This makes it possible to realistically capture complex phenomena such as dynamic recrystallization and twin-induced recrystallization.
By combining macroscopic process simulation with microscopic material modeling, a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between process control, microstructure, and resulting material properties is achieved.
‘With this project, we are gaining an in-depth understanding of how process control, microstructure and texture interact in magnesium. These findings are crucial for the future economic and reliable use of magnesium alloys such as ZAX210 in demanding applications,’ explains Johannes Kronsteiner, project manager and simulation expert at LKR.
Main Project Partners and Funding
The project partner is the Institute of Metal Forming (IMF) at TU Bergakademie Freiberg. The institute contributes its extensive expertise in experimental process development and twin-roll casting and is responsible for the overall coordination of the project.
Funding is provided by the FWF WEAVE program, with a main submission to the German Research Foundation (DFG) and co-financing from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).
Focus of the LKR Light Metal Competence Centre Ranshofen
LKR Light Metal Competence Centre Ranshofen GmbH is a subsidiary of AIT and part of the AIT Center for Transport Technologies. As the ‘Light Metals Technologies Ranshofen’ competence unit, it employs around 60 people and is considered a leading institution in the development of high-quality light metal alloys, sustainable processing technologies, and functionally integrated lightweight components.
Its work focuses both on developing energy-efficient and resource-saving production methods and on ensuring that materials meet the demanding requirements of highly stressed components, for example in the field of electric mobility.
Aluminum and magnesium also play a key role as recyclable materials, offering significant potential for a sustainable circular economy. Accordingly, research activities focus on these two light metals in order to enable efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly mobility solutions.
