by Composition and Properties of Magnesium
Magnesium is a lightweight metal that is the eighth most abundant element in Earth’s crust and the ninth most abundant element in the universe. With an atomic number of 12, magnesium has two stable isotopes – magnesium-24 and magnesium-25. Magnesium has a density of 1.74 g/cm3, about two-thirds that of aluminum and one-fourth that of steel. Magnesium is the third most commonly used structural metal after steel and aluminum. Some key properties of magnesium include high specific strength, excellent castability, significant damping capacity, electromagnetic shielding, and corrosion resistance.
Applications of Magnesium in Various Industries
Due to its lightweight yet strong properties, Magnesium Rod is increasingly being used in various industries for manufacturing components. The aerospace industry uses magnesium alloys for aircraft components such as seats, floor panels, and airframe parts to reduce weight. In the automotive industry as well, magnesium alloys are used for chassis, cover panels, gear housing, and steering wheels to lower vehicle weight and improve fuel efficiency. Electronics applications include laptop outer casings, cellular phones, and camera housings. Magnesium alloys are also used for manufacturing desalination equipment, hydrogen gas cylinders, bicycle components, and personal protective equipment like helmets due to their strength-to-weigh ratio.
Use of Magnesium Stick in Manufacturing Processes
One common application where magnesium finds extensive use is in the form of magnesium stick. Magnesium stick are long cylindrical bars usually 6-12 feet in length and 1-4 inches in diameter. They have a variety of functions in manufacturing processes:
– Welding: Magnesium stick are used as filler materials for welding magnesium alloys. Their addition promotes joint strength and integrity. Various welding techniques like gas tungsten arc welding and welding use magnesium stick.
– Casting: Magnesium alloys have excellent castability. Magnesium stick act as consumable inserts in high pressure die casting machines to produce complex hollow magnesium alloy parts with thin walls.
– Machining: Magnesium alloy workpieces require rigid clamping during machining operations like turning, milling, drilling etc. to prevent vibration. Magnesium stick placed alongside act as stiffeners/supports during machining.
– Heat Treatment: Magnesium stick placed inside autoclave furnaces help maintain an inert atmosphere during heat treatment of magnesium alloy parts and prevent oxidation.
– Powder Metallurgy: Finely crushed magnesium stick are mixed with metal powders to produce strong sintered net shape magnesium alloy components using powder metallurgy techniques.
Thus, with their mechanical rigidity and ability to supply magnesium during manufacturing processes, stick have become indispensable in the production of magnesium alloy parts and components.
Advantages of Using Magnesium Stick
There are several advantages of using magnesium stick in manufacturing industries:
– Supply of Parent Metal: Magnesium stick supply the basic parent magnesium metal required during welding, casting or powder metallurgy processes to produce finished magnesium alloy parts. This ensures consistency in alloy composition.
– Dimensional Stability: Being rigid cylindrical forms, magnesium stick provide dimensional stability support during clamping or handling of workpieces. This reduces vibration and ensures shaping accuracy.
– Creates Inert Atmosphere: When used as inserts inside furnaces, magnesium stick chemically react with other gases to generate an inert protective gas atmosphere preventing oxidation of workpieces.
– Economical: Despite their mechanical strength, magnesium stick have significantly lower material and production costs compared to precision magnesium alloy castings or wrought products.
– Ease of Use: Magnesium stick have simple cylindrical geometry that makes them easy to manually insert, position or extract during manufacturing sequences.
– Uniform Alloying: Finely crushed or shaved magnesium rod powders can be uniformly mixed with other elemental powders to consistently produce alloyed sintered parts.
Increased Production of Magnesium Stick
With the rising use of magnesium alloys across industries, production and consumption of magnesium stick have also increased substantially in recent years. Countries with major magnesium metal production like China, Russia, Israel and the United States have significantly augmented their magnesium rod rolling capacities.
In Summary, companies like Merck KGaA, Taiwan Guotai-Huarong Magnesium Co., Ltd. and US Magnesium LLC are among the leading global manufacturers of magnesium stick with products available in various industry-standard sizes and purity levels. With continuous technological improvements and new applications emerging, magnesium rod usage will further grow as a critical manufacturing resource.
*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
