Commentary

Magnesium

Magnesium Technology:
Hand-in-Hand with the
Industry
Mihriban O. Pekguleryuz

For most readers not fully familiar

with the magnesium industry, its small
size may be a hidden fact. Scientists
embarking on magnesium R&D sometimes fail to note that the small scale of
this industry, at only 400 tonnes of annual
production, may have an important
impact on research. The researchers need
to quickly learn to align their research
well with the needs of the industry and to
rate their research objectives and results
against techno-economic criteria. The
advantage to the R&D community,
however, is that in this mode it is possible
to quickly see the concrete results of
scientific activity.
In actual fact, the magnesium industry
has a good track record of benefiting
from and using the results of technology
and material development. In the 1980s,
the advent of high-purity alloy technology with strict tolerance limits on copper,
iron, and nickel contaminants and the
addition of manganese to control the
iron level made it possible for magnesium to have much-improved corrosion
resistance. This led to a jump in its use in
automotive and electronics applications,
which have grown at 510% per year. In
the late 1980s and early 1990s, more
pronounced growth was seen, reaching
30% in some years. This was mainly due
to the increase in the structural use of
magnesium in automotive interior
components. Such applications as the
magnesium instrument panel and
steering wheel are common applications
in passenger cars now. This would not
have been possible without the development of high-ductility Mg-Al-Mn alloys
(AM). More work is ongoing to develop
alloys and processes for magnesium,
which will further growth.
In this months JOM, we are pleased
to include papers that study the magnesium market as well as the technical
2002 August JOM

communitys R&D activities.

The coverage begins with a pair of
conference reviews that focus on
different aspects of the same symposium.
Under the auspices of the TMS Light
Metals Division, the TMS Magnesium
Symposium is recognized as the most
important magnesium conference in
North America. It succeeds in attracting
topics of scientific merit as well as with
a techno-commercial focus; the sympo-

In actual fact, the

magnesium industry
has a good track
record of benefiting
from and using the
results of technology
and material
development.
sium will become an important catalyst
for the future development of the
metallurgy and materials science of
magnesium and its industry. The recently
formed TMS Magnesium Committee is
to be acknowledged for recruiting papers
of interest and for reviewing the
contributions for merit.
The TMS Magnesium Committee also
presents best paper and best student paper
awards to the presenters of outstanding
symposium contributions. The best paper
from the 2001 TMS Magnesium Symposium, by B.R. Powell et al., examined a
new topic of interest: magnesium alloys
for elevated-temperature applications.
We are pleased to include this paper in
this issue as well.
R. Urbance et al. described a model
for simulating the magnesium market.
Although the study does not consider
the fully evolving nature of the magne-

sium market (e.g., the pressures exerted

by the global producers such as China
and Russia are not included), it instructively applies the tools of market
forecasting to a growing metals industry.
While this issues magnesium papers
are both informative and practical, it is
important to emphasize that the articles
are, out of obvious space constraint, of
limited scope and can only go a short
distance toward familiarizing the
scientific community with the characteristics of the magnesium industry and
ongoing magnesium R&D. Various
conference proceedingsespecially
from Europes Deutche Gesellschaft fur
Materialkunde, the more commercial
conference of the International Magnesium Association, and, of course,
TMSare available for further review.
It is the aim and wish of all involved in
magnesium from a techno-economic
perspective to see the synergy between
industry, technology, and R&D grow. In
order to succeed, magnesium producers
need to make good use of the technology
and materials developed by the technical/
scientific community. On the other hand,
the scientists and engineers conducting
R&D in magnesium must focus their
research on the medium-term needs of
the industry so that, in the future,
fundamental research projects can be
undertaken. Once the synergy is created
it is our belief that magnesium will realize
its full potential as an industry and as a
material.
Mihriban O. Pekguleryuz is principal scientist and
group leader of materials engineering at Noranda,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada and is the advisor to
JOM from the Magnesium Committee of the Light
Metals Division of TMS.

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