A novel strategy to strengthen the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) alloys.

• Strengthening from texture and dual-precipitates of Mg alloy is introduced. • Mg alloy by this method exhibits remarkable increase of yield strength. • Extension of this strengthening strategy to other HCP alloys are discussed. This work proposes a novel strengthening strategy for HCP alloy by fully utilizing the strengthening roles from texture and dual-precipitates in both basal and prismatic planes. The binary Mg-7Al (at%) alloy fabricated by such a strategy exhibits a superior combination of strength and strain hardening rate in major plastic strain ranges. Unlike conventionally fixed distribution of precipitate on given lattice plane, both basal and prismatic Mg 17 Al 12 precipitates are firstly engineered to co-exist and reinforce Mg alloy. Additionally, this work reports the presence of a new precipitate morphology with a hammer-like geometric configuration for the first time to date. Further application and extension of this novel strengthening strategy to other HCP alloys, like Ti, Zr, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]