Magnesium is a wonder of a metal. Not only can it be used in every day applications such as in health tablets to aid muscle recovery, but it’s used in the automotive industry, laptops, luggage and more.
But most surprisingly, this lightweight metal has a crucial role to play in aerospace research. In this post, Magnium Australia, the country’s leading expert on magnesium research, outlines the different applications of magnesium in aerospace technology.
Weight reduction
Magnesium is one of the lightest metals in the universe, so there’s little question about why one of its biggest benefits is in weight reduction. In terms of aerospace research, weight reduction is one area where magnesium really thrives. Where a heavier metal would otherwise be used, magnesium is lightweight yet incredibly strong, being used in air and space crafts to dramatically reduce their weight. This weight reduction has a number of positive benefits such as decreased emissions and improved fuel efficiency, which we’ll discuss further below.
Decreasing emissions
When an air or space craft is made lighter, it often produces fewer emissions, making operations more environmentally sustainable. Magnesium shows excellent results in this area. As aerospace research aims to make operations more sustainable, magnesium is playing an ever-important role in reducing carbon emissions.
Improving fuel efficiency
Going hand in hand with decreased emissions is the idea of increased fuel efficiency. Not only can magnesium make aerospace operations more sustainable, but more cost effective too, as a lighter aircraft implies a more fuel efficient one.
Better impact and damage properties than low-density plastics
Magnesium has the lowest density of all metals, yet shows incredible strength. When exposed to extreme temperatures, magnesium shows infinitely better impact and damage properties compared with low-density plastics. For this reasons, you can find magnesium in the thrust reversers of various Boeing aeroplane models as well as in jet engine fan frames, and aircraft and helicopter transmission casings.
The benefits of Magnium Australia
Magnium Australia have spearheaded a new way to manufacture high quality magnesium. The Magnium process is the only independently validated, scalable alternate to the Pidgeon process, which today accounts for 87% of the world’s magnesium metal. The Pidgeon or silicothermic process is not viable short or long term given its negative impact on the environment and high amounts of carbon emissions. Magnium, on the other hand, will take to scale new processes that engage low cost, low carbon energy supplies and highly efficient processes that reduce or eliminate toxic by-products to deliver globally competitive manufacturing of high-value metals.
Magnium Australia are reinventing the magnesium production landscape, and are dedicated to the low-carbon process of magnesium manufacturing which they’ve created. Their first-of-its-kind technology uses carbothermic reduction to produce magnesium in a way that’s efficient and low-emission on a scale that’s never been seen before. Magnium are committed to solving the problem of climate change by decarbonising mineral processing.
