New development in magnesium technology for light weight structures in transportation industries

As a result of the demands made in transportation industries to introduce more light weight materials, it is necessary to completely utilize the different potential of all light structural materials. The different classes of light metal materials have to compete with each other as well as with polymers and steels. In this competition, at first, there are economical issues and secondly, there are material and component characteristics which are of important influence for the choice of material. Magnesium as a candidate for material in light weight structures shows high potential to substitute conventional materials. The widespread use of magnesium and its alloys in transportation industry has been limited on one hand by its poor high temperature properties: low creep resistance, low high temperature fatigue resistance, high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and low Young's modulus. On the other hand, insufficient ductility and crash energy consumption in car body structures as well as low fatigue stability are deficits. For each type of application, tailor made materials have to be developed as well. This presentation gives an overview on the actual status of the development of magnesium alloys and technologies for application in the transportation industries. The history and peculiarities of magnesium materials is presented. It is to be shown that the potential of magnesium alloys promises the introduction of more magnesium parts into the transportation industries. The development of new cast or wrought alloys and the optimization of existing or new processes for the production of magnesium parts is discussed.