Cold Microdrawing of Pure Magnesium Capillary Structures for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

This paper presents a study on cold microdrawing of pure magnesium for biomedical applications, where hollow sinking drawing of microtubes of 820 μm diameter and wall thickness around 100 μm was used, varying drawing speeds to achieve a significant reduction in cross-sectional area in a single pass. Results showed an improved surface finish with reduced surface roughness after drawing. The material exhibited an increase in microhardness and ultimate tensile strength by 41% due to work hardening caused by plastic deformation. The study also identified wall thickening of the tube and observed springback behavior of Mg at the die exit. Drawing forces were collected for process monitoring, and finite element (FE) simulations were conducted to assess the risk of pure Mg microtube breakage. This research contributes to advancing the state of the art in Mg microtube drawing, addressing the unique challenge of working with such small tube dimensions where limited studies currently exist.