Wed, 07 May, 2025
A new paper, co-authored by experts from TWI, has been published in the ‘Materials and Design’ journal.
The paper, ‘Graded SiC reinforced magnesium wires: Towards high throughput composite alloy discovery,’ was written by TWI Project Engineer, Sam Holdsworth and Senior Technician, Oliver Watts alongside co-authors from Imperial College London, the University of Southampton, and the University of Sheffield.
The study details research into fabricating composite wires with longitudinally varying composition using the by-product of stationary-shoulder friction stir channelling (SS-FSC).
SS-FSC, which was invented at TWI as the CoreFlow® sub-surface machining technique, is capable of extruding wire from plates that can then be used for processes such as wire-based additive manufacturing or as welding wire. This process has created interest for producing wire from materials that have poor extrudability, such as alloys of aluminium or magnesium.
The paper details the manufacture of magnesium (Mg) composite wires with a longitudinally graded concentration of silicon carbide (SiC) particles.
The extruded wire underwent microstructural analysis to assess grain refinement as well as mechanical characterisation to confirm the proof of concept for SS-FSC in producing high-quality wires with tailored microstructural and mechanical gradients.
You can see the study, in full, here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2025.114016
Details of the CoreFlowTM process have previously been published in two other journals; Scripta Materialia and MSEA, where there was a focus on magnesium and aluminium alloy wires. You can find out more about those papers, here: CoreFlow Highlighted in Two New Journal Papers - TWI