Magnesium Elektron has a direct chill casting facility, two magnesium extrusion plants and rolling mills capable of producing an extensive range of magnesium bar, section, billet and sheet products. The flexibility of our manufacturing operations enables bespoke production for commercial and speciality requirements.
Wrought magnesium alloys are produced in a range of product forms. Extruded magnesium bars, sections and tubes are widely used in aerospace, nuclear, automotive and other engineering applications. Rolled magnesium sheet and magnesium plate are produced for seawater battery, photoengraving (PE), space, production tooling and jigging, automotive and ICT applications. Magnesium forgings are used primarily for aerospace applications.
The Mg-Al-Zn wrought alloy range which includes Elektron ® AZ31, Elektron ® AZM and Elektron ® AZ80 are used in photoengraving (PE), power generation, defence, and ICT applications. Elektron® ZW3 and Elektron ® ZK60 were developed as high strength magnesium extrusion and magnesium forging alloy and are used in aerospace applications including helicopter gearbox parts and wheels. More recently, the yttrium containing alloys Elektron ® WE43 and Elektron ® WE54 were developed as high temperature wrought magnesium alloys for use up to 300°C.
Elektron ® 21 was designed as a sand cast alloy. In this form, Elektron 21 offers good strength and corrosion performance. Strength is also maintained at elevated temperature (up to 2000C). Development work has shown that Elektron 21 can also achieve good properties in the wrought form. This is a particular benefit for elevated temperature applications, compared to commonly used Magnesium Aluminium alloys such as AZ31 and AZ80. In common with many other wrought alloys, properties of the wrought part are affected by processing factors such as; Forming temperature, Amount of deformation & Post forming heat treatment. An example of properties generated from wrought Elektron 21 is provided below
|
Extrusion Temperature |
Yield Strength (MPa) |
Ultimate Strength(MPa) |
Elongation (%) |
Post Extrusion Heat treat |
|
Low |
200-285 |
300-340 |
10-16 |
T5 |
|
High |
145 |
280 |
13 |
T5 | T5 = 16 hours at 2000C
It is expected that properties can be tailored to achieve different properties by modification to deformation and heat treatment. For example reduced aging temperature and increased time can improve strength, where as full solution treatment and age reduces strength, but can improve stability at temperature. As work progresses in this area, further updates can be provided.
Elektron® magnesium bar, section, billet and sheet products are supplied to the latest international quality standards including ISO 9001:2000.
In conjunction with other Luxfer Group companies, Superform Aluminium and Superform USA , Magnesium Elektron has developed AZ31B-H24 sheet for superplastic forming applications which compares favourably in both formability and post forming properties with aluminium alloy AA5083, widely used in automotive and other transport applications. For further information on the process and the potential weight saving benefits, please download the data sheet ' Superplastic Magnesium Sheet ' or contact us at:
wrought-products@magnesium-elektron.com.
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