LinkedIn Email Twitter YouTube Phone Home Products What we do Blog Careers About us Downloads News Contact us Previous Next Home/Blog/Magnesium Alloy Technology in Motorsport Magnesium Alloy Technology in Motorsport: Lightweight materials for the motorsport industry Today we think of aluminium as the go to lightweight material, but what if we told you there is a material which is 30% lighter than aluminium? Perhaps top tier motorsports best kept secret is the use of magnesium alloy technology to enhance performance of components through light weighting. As the world works to reduce emissions and increase performance of vehicles lightweight materials such as magnesium may play a key role. Light weighting of components has many benefits: increased acceleration, reduced braking distance, reduction of emissions, fuel consumption, increased payloads, and increased range. High specific stiffness For bars with equivalent weight and width, magnesium is 18 times stiffer than steel and double that of aluminium. In practice it is not always possible to increase section thickness to these extents. With only small increases in cross section it is possible to redesign parts that offer 20–25% weight savings over aluminium equivalents and 65–70% weight savings when substituting steel designs. Versatile Lightweight magnesium alloys can be shaped into plate by rolling and extruded into both solid and hollow profiles. These can be further shaped using forging, pressing, bending or simply machining from solid. Highly machinable Magnesium alloys are the easiest of all structural metals to machine. Advantages include: Low power consumption (45% less than aluminium) Fast machining rate (55%) Excellent surface finish Reduced tool wear Well broken chips High strength Alloys are available that have comparable properties with other structural metals – with the added advantage of superior performance at elevated temperatures (good creep resistance and tensile strength). EMI/RFI shielding Has inherent screening properties, useful for electronic enclosures and has good thermal conductivity for heat dissipation. Vibration damping Magnesium alloys have excellent vibration damping properties. Corrosion resistance Modern alloys have good corrosion resistance. For more severe environments, there are a range of surface passivation and top coat treatments commercially available. We’d love to hear about your applications, why not get in touch with us today to discuss how we can help increase the performance of your design? GET IN TOUCH Home Aerospace Automotive Catalysis Ceramics Coatings and solutions Defense Extruded and forging magnesium Healthcare Oil and gas United States Luxfer MEL Technologies 500 Barbertown Point Breeze Road Flemington, NJ 08822 +1 908 782 5800 LMT.Customerservice-Flemington@luxfer.com UK and Rest of the World Luxfer MEL Technologies Elektron® Technology Centre Lumns Lane, Manchester, M27 8LN +44 (0)161 911 1000 LMT.Customerservice-Manchester@luxfer.com ©2021 Luxfer MEL Technologies | Privacy and Cookies By clicking Send you agree to Luxfer MEL Technologies processing the personal data you have provided as detailed in our Privacy Policy. LATEST BLOGS