Critical Assessment 6: Magnesium sheet alloys: viable alternatives to steels?

Abstract

Increasing global demands for energy conservation and environmental protection have prompted automotive manufactures to develop lightweight automobiles. As the lightest of structural alloys, Mg alloys offer significant potential for weight reduction, but have yet to see significant application in automobiles, particularly in sheet form. The current technical issues preventing the widespread application of Mg sheet alloys in automobiles (cost, mechanical properties and formability, joining, corrosion resistance) are assessed and future research needs to develop viable Mg sheet alloys for these applications are identified.