Development of P/M magnesium alloys and surface treatment of magnesium in molten salts

在当今能源危机的情况下，为了满足全球减少汽车排放的社会和环境要求，我们需要在运输车辆的建造中使用轻质材料。铝作为最轻的金属之一，已经成功地渗透到汽车市场，目前正在大量生产。比铝还轻的镁还没有得到很大程度的利用。造成这种情况的原因是缺乏发达的商用镁合金，镁合金难以成型，镁合金在环境中的腐蚀。提出的研究目标是：a)通过压实和巩固金属镁粉末和其他合金添加剂的方法来开发新的镁合金；b)在熔盐中生产镁合金表面涂层的新方法，以消除或减少镁的腐蚀。该研究已被申请人成功地应用于铝的研究中，并有望在镁和镁合金的研究中产生良好的结果。这项工作对整个轻材料运输利用领域的预期好处在于，通过减少镁的浪费，创造一种新的环保方式来制造汽车零部件。加拿大也将从这类工作中受益，因为加拿大是世界上最大的电解镁生产国。

In today's energy crisis situation to meet societal and environmental demands for a global reduction in automotive emissions we need to use light-weight materials in the construction of transportation vehicles.  Aluminum, being one of the lightest metals, has successfully penetrated the automotive market and is presently being produced in large amounts. Magnesium which is even lighter than aluminum has not yet been utilized to a large extent. The reasons for this are the lack of developed commercial magnesium alloys, the difficulty to shape magnesium alloys into sheets, and the corrosion of magnesium alloys in the environment. The proposed research aims at developing: a) new alloys of magnesium by the method of compacting and consolidating powders of magnesium metal and other alloying additions and b) new methods in molten salts to produce coatings on the surface of magnesium alloys that will eliminate or reduce the corrosion of magnesium. The proposed research has been used successfully by the applicant in the case of aluminum and it is expected to produce good results in the case of magnesium and magnesium alloys. The expected benefits of this work to the whole area of utilization of light materials to transportation lie on the prospects of creating a new environmentally friendly way of making automotive components by reducing the waste of magnesium. Canada also stands to benefit from this kind of work because Canada is the largest producer of electrolytic magnesium in the world.