Accelerated solid solution and aging induced by electropulsing in Mg-Al-Ca-Mn alloy

•Electropulsing treatment can replace the conventional solid solution treatment.•Electropulsing promoted recrystallization and refined the grains.•The aging process is accelerated due to more dislocations induced by eletropulsing. The effects of electropulsing treatment (EPT) and conventional heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of extruded Mg-1.18Al-0.3Ca-0.46Mn alloy were investigated.The results showed that EPT can replace the solid solution treatment, refine the grains and reduce 33% of the followed peak aging time (compared with the T6 sample). The mechanism of accelerated aging process may mainly base on the fact that EPT induce more vacancies and dislocations, which makes it easier to nucleate than traditional solid solution treatment. This interesting result exhibits a new pathway to strengthen Mg alloys in a very short time.