Structure and texture of twin roll cast strips of Zn–Cu–Ti zinc alloy

Abstract

The structure and crystallographic texture of zinc strips (Zn–Cu–Ti alloy) produced by the continuous horizontal twin roll strip casting method has been characterized. In longitudinal sections normal to the transverse direction, the strips display an approximately symmetrical chevron patterned structure of columnar grains inclined about 30° from the rolling direction. In association with such structure, the macroscopic texture is mainly a ‘normal’ (not cyclic) fibre texture tilted approximately ±30° around the transverse direction plus a similarly tilted weak <0001> fibre texture. A thin layer of small equiaxed grains with a strong (0001) basal texture is present at the free surfaces. The observed structure/texture combination agrees quite well with the expected macrostructure of solidification of the alloy in the twin roll casting process.

Keywords:

• Twin roll casting
• Microstructure
• Macrostructure
• Zinc copper titanium alloy
• Texture

The results presented in this work have been obtained in a collaborative R&D project of ASLA, Asturiana de Laminados, and CEIT, with financial support from CDTI, Centro para el Desarrollo Técnológico e Industrial, Spain.