Click on the advert above to visit the company web site

Product category: Metals and materials, stockholding
News Release from: Sumitomo Electric Industries | Subject: Magnesium alloy wire
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 05 April 2002

Magnesium alloy wire has high strength

Request your FREE weekly copy of the Manufacturingtalk email newsletter. News about Metals and materials, stockholding and more every issue. Click here for details.

A leading Japanese manufacturer of fibre optic components and electronic materials, has developed a highly accurate magnesium alloy wire that is 20% stronger than extruded magnesium alloy bars.

Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI), a leading Japanese manufacturer of fiber optic components and electronic materials, is pleased to announce it developed a highly accurate magnesium alloy wire that is 20 percent stronger than extruded magnesium alloy bars and can be bent and coiled at room temperature The alloy's flexibility, strength, light weight and other features means it has a wide range of potential applications in electronic devices, leisure and sporting goods, and automotive parts

For example, the alloy can shield against electromagnetic interference and be easily recycled, making it ideal for use in portable electronic equipment such as cellular phones, notebook PCs, and portable MD players.

SEI also expects demand for the alloy for use as a substitute for resins and aluminum alloy.

Magnesium is the lightest metal among all structural metal materials.

It is one-quarter the density of iron and about two-thirds the density of aluminum, though, due to its crystal structure, the workability of magnesium alloy at room temperature is lower than other materials.

Magnesium alloy goods were made only by casting and hot extrusion.

Moreover, the alloy's strength and toughness needed to be further enhanced.

By exploiting its unique technologies of drawing and heat treatment, SEI succeeded in developing a stronger, more flexible magnesium alloy wire.

These features are largely due to the alloy's fine grain size, which is induced by SEI's technologies.

The main features of the alloy are: * High dimensional accuracy (tolerance: 1/100 mm or less,) allowing use in high-precision devices.

* Ductility is equivalent to that of conventional materials (extrusion materials), while tensile strength is 20 percent stronger than conventional materials.

Tensile strength of AZ31 alloy (Al 3%, Zn 1%) is 310MPa and of AZ61 alloy is 370MPa.

* Yield stress is enhanced by 50% at the maximum, compared with conventional materials (extrusion materials).

(Yield stress of AZ31 alloy is 260MPa and of AZ61 alloy is 300MPa.).

The wire also: * Can be bent and coiled at room temperature.

* Long wire can be produced.

* Can be made in an oval, square and other non-round-shaped cross sections.

* Possible to select a wire with diameters ranging from 0.2mm to 7.0mm.

Note: MPa: Unit of stress.

1MPa = 1N/mm2.

Yield stress: The stress at which strain increases rapidly and permanent strain occurs with almost no increase in stress.

Sumitomo Electric Industries: contact details and other news
Email this article to a colleague
Register for the free Manufacturingtalk email newsletter
Manufacturingtalk Home Page

Search the Pro-Talk network of sites