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Steering wheel and headlamp housing scrap are chosen as targets for the development of a refining technology for highly contaminated magnesium melt, because they contain abundant foreign materials, which have high potential to form non-metallic inclusions and to deteriorate the corrosion resistance of recycled alloys. A sequential melt treatment technology has been investigated for refining old scrap. The headlamp housing scrap composed of AZ91D magnesium alloy covered with phosphating and Al-Si deposition layers was successfully refined by repeating gas bubbling without flux addition, whereas prefiltering and fluxing were necessary to refine the steering wheel scrap composed of AM50A magnesium alloy containing 1% polyurethane. However, the corrosion rates of the recovered ingots from the headlamp housing were relatively higher than those from the steering wheel, likely due to the greater concentration of iron with the increased amount of flux.

The AZ31 magnesium alloys were subjected to indirect and direct extrusion processes, respectively, and the properties of the extruded alloys were compared. It was shown that the indirect-extruded alloy has a lower yield asymmetry between tension and compression than the direct-extruded alloy, which is due to a weaker fiber texture in the former.

The solidification behavior of AZ31 magnesium alloy plate during horizontal continuous casting (HCC) with constant velocity was analyzed by three-dimensional CFD simulation. At steady state, the temperature profile in the direction of width was slightly inhomogeneous due to wide width compared to thickness. The temperature profile in the direction of thickness was symmetrical although the temperature at lower part was slightly higher than that at upper part. The region of high temperature increased rapidly with increasing the withdrawal speed, and then the finishing point of solidification increased dramatically. The shape of temperature profile was similar regardless of melt temperature but the overall temperature of plate and the finishing point of solidification increased with increasing the melt temperature. The finishing point of solidification decreased reciprocally with the coefficient of heat transfer.

The effects of CeCl3-containing fluxes on RE element loss, the high temperature mechanical properties, microstructure and corrosion properties of magnesium alloy containing RE have been studied. The results showed that a certain amount of CeCl3 in purification fluxes restrained the reaction between the Ce element and fluxes to decrease the loss of Ce in alloys. With the flux containing 9% CeCl3, the loss rate of alloy element Ce can be reduced from 26.9% to 3.4%, and the σb and δ of the alloys at 150°C counld be improved from 160.9MPa and 6.2% to 176.5MPa and 7.9% compared with that of conventional MgCl2-containing flux , respectively. Besides, the coarse β phase and rod-like RE phase were refined effectively by CeCl3-containing fluxes.

The effects of non-flux purification on the mechanical properties, microstructure and fracture pattern of AZ31+xCa magnesium alloys have been studied. The results show that the purification process of ceramic foam filters incorporating gas bubbling process can improve obviously the ultimate tensile strength σb and elongation δ of AZ31 alloy. With 20ppi MgO filter incorporating gas bubbling treatment under Ar flow rate of 2 l/min and temperature of 730°C, the σb and δ of AZ31 can be improved from 144.6MPa and 5.21% to 180.8MPa and 9.06% by 25% and 73.9%, respectively. Addition of 0.13%Ca to magnesium can not only increase the strength but also improve the elongation. With the further increase of more than 0.13% Ca content, the strength and elongation decrease. The experimental results show that under low Ca content, filtration purification process can greatly improve the σb and δ of AZ31+xCa alloy. However, with the increase of Ca content, the filtration effects decrease. The effective sequence of different filters is as follows: 20ppi MgO>20ppi Al2O3>10ppi MgO>10ppi Al2O3.

In this study the effects of Ca addition on the rollability, microstructures and tensile properties of AZ31 alloy were evaluated. In Ca containing alloys, reduction ratio and preheating temperature are the most important variables to make good sheet without any crack. The number and length of side crack increased with increasing Ca content. With increasing the reduction ratio per pass and decreasing the preheating temperature, crack initiates easily at the side. The dendritic grains were changed to fine equiaxed grains through hot rolling by dynamic recrystallization. The Al2Ca precipitates which were segregated to grain boundaries during solidification were rearranged parallel to the rolling direction. The tensile properties of hot-rolled AZ31-xCa sheets were decreased slightly by addition of Ca.

AZ31 magnesium plates with 1mm in thickness were fabricated by casting and subsequent hot rolling process. Both wheel-band continuous casting (modified Properzi) and horizontal continuous casting (HCC) machine were designed and employed to produce AZ31 alloy plates. The plates with 5x50mm in size produced by modified Properzi process exhibited good surface qualities that were sustained during following rolling process. Surface qualities of HCC plates with 120x30mm in size were very sensitive depending on the processing parameters. Homogenization treatment or surface machining before rolling was effective to get good thin plate. By means of rolling process, microstructures were refined effectively to the size of 7~10µm.

The initial coarse grain size of 400㎛ of a as-cast AZ31 alloy was refined to 130㎛ by carbon addition method. The microstructural evolution, recrystallization, edge cracking phenomena of the coarse grained AZ31 alloy during hot rolling were investigated and compared with those of grain refined AZ31 alloy.