Magnesium Vision 2020, A North American Automotive Strategic Vision for Magnesium

摘要

This manuscript dissects the recent monograph, "Magnesium Vision 2020: a North American Automotive Strategic Vision for Magnesium", sponsored by the U.S. Automotive Materials Partnership and published in November 2006 on the USCAR website www.uscar.org. Even though 150 kg of magnesium have been approved by the auto industry, cost, technical and infrastructural challenges have inhibited magnesium applications to ～ 6 kg/vehicle. 163 R&D themes (or projects) are proposed that examine the issues: 70 address the 4 technical challenges: cost and quality (19), corrosion (35), and fastening/joining (16). 93 examine new manufacturing technology: 34 in casting other than high pressure die casting, and 59 in wrought processing. Unlike aluminum, polymers and steel, there are no full service suppliers who research, design, manufacture, certify and provide implementation-ready components/assemblies to the auto industry. In the absence of a supportive infrastructure a magnesium center of excellence is proposed that would cyber-integrate global scientists, engineers, and automotive manufacturing/product development specialists. The Center would perform research and develop technology and modeling protocols that could predict magnesium component/vehicle behavior without the expensive test track implementation-readiness normally required for automotive component use. This would lead to rapid development of new products that could economically compete with aluminum, steel and plastics.