Development of Magnesium Powder Metallurgy AZ31 Alloy Using Commercially Available Powders

Magnesium and its alloys are attractive materials for use in automotive and aerospace applications because of their low density and good mechanical properties. However, difficulty in forming magnesium and the limited number of available commercial alloys limit their use. The present work reviews the efforts to improve the attractiveness of magnesium through non-traditional processing, and presents the results of producing AZ31 magnesium alloy via powder metallurgy P/M. P/M can be used to alleviate the formability problem through near-net-shape processing, and also allows unique chemical compositions that can lead to the development of new alloys with novel properties