Salzgitter pioneers magnesium sheet technologies

Super lightweight material of the future developed to market maturity – magnesium sheet production kicks off at Salzgitter location

The company Salzgitter Magnesium-Technologie GmbH (SZMT) is pushing ahead with the market launch of a new super lightweight material. The newly founded Salzgitter AG subsidiary is an international leader in this sector. The company focuses on the development, manufacture and sales of high quality magnesium flat rolled products and offers strong competence and high performance in materials partnerships for product developments and series applications.

Magnesium sheet is a material holding highly attractive potential for a wide range of applications in vehicle manufacturing, mechanical engineering, aerospace, communication technology and electronics (casings and enclosures, for example), medical technology, as well as the sports and recreational sector. The material is well suited to complex lightweight engineering tasks and is characterized by extremely high strength and stiffness properties in connection with good forming capabilities. According to application area, up to 30 % higher weight savings can be achieved over aluminum. As a metal, magnesium is fully recyclable.

The commissioning of a worldwide leading-edge industrial production facility at the Salzgitter location represents a genuine milestone in the development of this high-tech material. With this achievement, Salzgitter is the first company in Europe to have taken the step from the laboratory to a dedicated industrial production facility that is focusing exclusively on magnesium. Working to client specifications, the plant is turning out tailored magnesium flat rolled products made of standard alloys and special quality grades in sheet widths between 600 and 1.850 mm and sheet thickness ranging between 1 to 80 mm.

Magnesium rolled products offer generous design scope and can be processed by conventional sheet forming methods. The scope for forming is considerably extended by tempered processing at between 150 and 300°C. Sheet components are joined by standard proven bonding techniques. High performance commercial solutions are also available for corrosion prevention and surface coating.

Magnesium sheet is already undergoing testing in various application areas. Especially in thin metal parts with large surface areas (body panels, for example) that are subject to high surface demands, the inherent lightweight engineering potentials are particularly advantageous. In applications outside of automotive engineering, thicker magnesium plate represents an interesting basis for semi-finished products for metal-cutting manufacturing, as in the production of super lightweight machines, casings, enclosures or structural parts, for example. SZMT supports its partners in the realization of forward-looking, innovative lightweight engineering tasks. In addition to the range of semi-finished sheet products, the company is offering additional services geared to product development with magnesium sheet, including concept and design work, as well as sample and prototype building all the way through to small series manufacturing