On November 1, Japan’s NEDO and the new structure material technology research combination of industrial technology research institute (comprehensive research), no. 2 light metal co., LTD., and the entrustant tohata successfully produced the flame-retardant magnesium alloy extruded profiles with significantly improved mechanical properties on the basis of traditional methods.
Magnesium alloy is one of the lighter metals in practical metals. Due to its specific strength, magnesium alloy and carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) have been widely regarded as the next generation structural materials.
Magnesium alloy is inflammable and difficult to process, but it has some disadvantages compared with aluminum alloy, the traditional general structure material.
The addition of rare earth materials such as yttrium and neodymium can effectively improve these defects.
However, the addition of rare earth materials will result in increased costs and limited applications.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop magnesium alloys with excellent flame retardancy and processability in order to apply them to railway transportation parts and materials.
The NEDO project is developing a rare earth free magnesium alloy to overcome the shortcomings of flammability and difficulty in processing.
By controlling the structure of magnesium alloy, the strength, ductility and flame retardancy of the material are improved.
In the traditional casting heat treatment technology, high strength and elongation cannot be obtained in the manufacture of flame-retardant magnesium alloy due to the internal crystallization of the extruded material (billet).
Therefore, a new heat treatment technique was successfully developed for spheroidization and hardening of crystalline materials by combining the structure control technology of the comprehensive research institute, the extrusion technology of non-lightweight metals, and the casting technology of isao tohata.
The experimental results show that the new heat treatment technology has almost the same tensile strength as the conventional flame-retardant magnesium alloy, and the elongation rate is 50% higher, and the excellent balance between strength and ductility is achieved.
Through this technology, effectively from the railway transport vehicles to promote the lightweight, and reduce the emission of carbon dioxide.
