NEW HIGH PERFORMANCE MAGNESIUM ALLOY

17 November 2003

17 Nov 2003
Over 100 delegates from sand and investment casting foundries, aerospace companies and motorsport teams attended the three venues to hear four days of presentations. The meetings included guest papers from GM Allison Transmissions and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

ELEKTRON®21 is a high performance alloy combining excellent mechanical properties with good corrosion resistance and castability, while weighing only two thirds the weight of an aluminium aerospace alloy,. These characteristics offer an attractive lightweight solution to designers in the aerospace, motor racing and other high performance industries. The new alloy will be specified in many new applications, particularly in the aerospace industry where new alloy technology will enable aircraft manufacturers and airline operators to realise significant cost savings over the operating life of an aircraft. In the manufacture of helicopters, ELEKTRON® magnesium alloys have been used successfully in major structural components for many years.

In North America, ELEKTRON®21 has already been specified for transmission casings on a new major military programme, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV). This vehicle operates in very severe environments including seawater, for which good corrosion characteristics are essential. Five other component manufacturers from the aerospace and motorsport industries have requested ELEKTRON ®21 castings for evaluation.

During the last year, casting trials have been carried out by two foundries in North America and one in Europe. These trials were very positive and ELEKTRON®21 was shown to have excellent castability. Six other foundries have also requested material and technical support from Magnesium Elektron for casting evaluations.

Magnesium Elektron is the world leader in the production of high performance alloys and other magnesium products. The company began production of magnesium in 1936 at its Manchester plant and subsequently developed a wide range of magnesium alloy systems. ELEKTRON®21 is the latest advance in this long programme of alloy development.

Magnesium Elektron is part of the Elektron Division of the Luxfer Group which has magnesium manufacturing facilities in England, Germany, North America and the Czech Republic. Luxfer is an international manufacturer of high performance engineering materials including magnesium alloys, zirconium products, aluminium tube and high pressure gas cylinders.