China NJYH Light Alloy Technology Group has developed an engineering magnesium alloy. The performance of this alloy has been significantly improved and can replace steel and aluminum alloys for automotive and aerospace parts.
The density of the deformed magnesium alloy is two-thirds of that of aluminum and one-quarter of that of steel. However, due to the low to medium strength, poor ductility, asymmetric flexural strength, and lack of high strain rate superplasticity, this kind of The industrial application of alloys on structural parts is very limited. At the same time, automobile emissions account for 27% of the total carbon dioxide emissions in the world. Countries around the world are working to reduce carbon emissions. One of the important concerns is to reduce the carbon of automobiles by using lightweight car body materials. emission. Because the vehicle is light in weight and consumes less fuel energy, this is one of the strategies to improve vehicle energy efficiency.
A magnesium alloy developed by NJYH with almost zero yield asymmetry and high ductility has made progress in solving this challenging problem. This new engineering alloy has high strength and good ductility, and can achieve superplasticity at a higher strain rate, reducing overall manufacturing time, effort, and cost; moreover, this type of alloy is very light, helping to reduce the carbon of the car Emissions, because light vehicles require less fuel to run, which saves more fuel.
NJYH said: "Magnesium is the lightest metal material in the structural field. As the lightest energy-saving structural material, magnesium alloy has strong potential and can be used in automotive and aerospace components to replace steel and aluminum alloys. To reduce automotive emissions In general, weight loss plays an important role. Reducing the average weight of new cars, whether they are cars, buses or trucks, can immediately increase the net emission reduction. According to the US Department of Energy, a 10% reduction in vehicle weight can make fuel economy easier Increase 6-8%.
In addition, NJYH's research team also tried to improve the carrying capacity of metals and alloys through microstructure engineering and metal processing. After achieving this goal, the team plans to apply the same machining strategy to other known magnesium alloys and metal alloys to make more efficient, stronger, and better performing materials. In this study, the scientists used a magnesium alloy containing rare earth elements such as gadolinium, yttrium and zirconium. After thermomechanical processing technology (severe plastic deformation and aging treatment), a super-grained version of this magnesium alloy was obtained. Since then, the team has designed nanoprecipitates and thermally stable ultrafine intermetallic compounds in ultrafine grain magnesium alloys. The magnesium alloy prepared by the team is the best among all magnesium alloys in terms of the comprehensive performance of strength ductility and high strain rate superplasticity.
NJYH is a pioneer in this field through microstructure engineering and manufacturing methods based on material processing to maximize the structural efficiency of any metallic material. He said: "At present, we are working with the automotive industry to apply the magnesium alloy we have developed to automotive structural components and body panels."