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Magnesium represents a very attractive material for biodegradable stents since the process of its natural and gradual dissolution into the human body by a corrosion process would prevent restenosis risks and would allow the progressive transmission of the mechanical load to the surrounding tissues after several months of service. The objective of the present work is to develop a frame of mechanical and microstructural data about several commercially available Mg alloys in view of their use for biodegradable stents. The AZ31, AZ61, AZ80, ZM21, ZK61 and WE43 alloys in the form of extruded bars were thus investigated to compare their mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. Further high-temperature characterization was carried out by compression tests at high temperature (temperature range: 260-450°C, strain rate range: 5•10-4 ÷ 3•10-2 s-1) in order to assess the optimal processing window for stent precursors manufacturing (small tubes 1÷2 mm in diameter) by hot extrusion. The experimental results made available by this investigation were adopted to support the development of a finite element (FE) framework combining a shape optimization procedure and a detailed model for Mg alloy mechanical and corrosion damage behavior.

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A study was carried out on aging behaviour of a 6082 alloy processed by two different severe plastic deformation techniques: ECAP and asymmetric rolling. Both techniques were able to generate an ultrafine-grained structure in samples processed at room temperature. It was stated that severe straining promotes marked changes in the postdeformation aging kinetics. The peaks of β /β transition phases were anticipated and of progressively reduced intensity over the coarse grained alloy. A further peak accounting for onset of recrystallization also appeared in the most severely deformed samples. Full consistency in peak shape and position was found when comparing materials processed by ECAP and asymmetric rolling. Isothermal aging treatments performed at 180• C revealed that in the severely deformed samples, aging became so fast that the hardness curves continuously decreased due to overwhelming effects of structure restoration. On the contrary, aging at 130• C offers good opportunities for fully exploiting the precipitate hardening effects in the ultrafine-grained alloy.

The present contribution is aimed at investigating the microstructure evolution of commercially pure silver under severe plastic deformation conditions. ECAP billets have been produced by using a die with channels intersecting at 90° and straining the samples at room temperature. The evolution of the microstructure as a function of imparted strain was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy as well as X-ray diffractometry. Furthermore, tensile properties were measured from ECAP billets in order to evaluate the strengthening and work hardening behaviour of silver as a function of structure evolution. Comparison in terms of grain structure and corresponding properties are also drawn by considering published data about Al-Mg-Si alloy samples ECAP-processed by identical routes and parameters.