Past 2010 Issues
March 2010 Issue #12: Magnesium: The Framework for Innovation
Across the board, eco-conscious design innovations take more than just bright ideas – they require materials that support and facilitate
optimal energy efficiency and longer product life cycles. Magnesium alloys accomplish this while being fully reusable and recyclable.
From Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting to lighter vehicles that reduce an engine’s load, to housing longer-life batteries in computers and
electric personal transport, magnesium is becoming the designer’s most versatile material choice to enhance product functionality and
improve user mobility with greater energy efficiency and environmental benefits.
January 2010 Issue #11: Magnesium Extrusions Optimize Lightweight Strength
Magnesium is increasingly chosen by design engineers as the lightweight metal option that retains rigidity and strength needed for
structural applications. Magnesium alloy extrusions offer the structural strength benefits of their aluminum counterparts at a 25 to 30
percent weight savings. Lowering weight directly impacts transportation and energy costs, manpower needed for assembly and use, and
load requirements for structure supports. Extruded magnesium alloys offer high mechanical strength and performance while being the
easiest structural metal to machine, giving manufacturers better ways to design innovative products for highly competitive markets.
2009 Issues
October 2009 Issue #10: Magnesium's Got Game
Durable, lightweight magnesium takes “faster, higher, stronger”
to a new level, providing key components to sports gear
for soccer, ice skating, golf, ski racing, archery, and outdoor
adventuring. Athletes seeking a competitive edge and nature
enthusiasts alike need reliable equipment that achieves
consistently high performance. Competing and adventuring in
or outdoors requires equipment that benefits from magnesium’s
many attributes: lighter weight for better balance and weight
distribution, strength/durability, creep resistance, vibration
dampening, advanced production methods, and the ability to
integrate magnesium seamlessly with other materials in a single design.
August 2009 Issue #9: Magnesium Components Critical to Medial/Healthcare Equipment
With healthcare issues in the national spotlight, magnesium alloys are playing an important role in the structural
components used in advanced technology medical equipment that make effective and cost-conscious patient care
a reality. Such products improve the quality of diagnostics, testing and treatment and are more mobile and versatile
thanks to the lightness and durability of magnesium. Components that house advanced medical technologies must
be structurally strong yet light, in order to achieve the ease of mobility necessary for today’s portable equipment.
Magnesium components meet weight and rigidity requirements, provide built-in Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)
and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) shielding, and enable efficient production options and unit cost savings for
manufacturers over alternative materials.
April 2009 Issue #8: Planes, Trains and Motorcycles...Mg Accelerates Smart Weighting Trend
“Smart Weighting” with lighter materials such as magnesium sheds vehicle pounds and improves overall efficiency in fast-paced transportation. Designers strategically lighten vehicles in key areas, incorporating magnesium into advanced components, which maximizes the material’s ultra light weight and strength. The eco-friendly bonus from using magnesium to make lighter trains, planes, motorcycles, and helicopters is that energy is saved and greenhouse gas emissions are reduced in the process. Traveling via air, high-speed rail, or the open road no longer has to take a toll on the environment.
January 2009 Issue #7: Magnesium in Motion
The automotive industry's future is riding on innovation, and magnesium is sure to be one of the key materials in achieving a new era of lighter, more efficient vehicles. Light metals, such as magnesium, are often the springboard for technical advances needed to achieve new goals, including fuel/energy efficiency, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Magnesium applications in the transportation sector abound, with many in development. This lightest of all structural metals promises to play an integral part in designing and manufacturing more competitive vehicles that flourish in global transportation markets.
2008 Issues
September 2008 Issue #6: Magnesium's Tough Strength Endures Abuse
to Protect Portable Electronic Devices
Driven by environmental programs across the consumer electronics industry, portable electronics product manufacturers are opting for light, yet tough, magnesium for everything from flash audio/video players to digital cameras, mobile phones, computer notebooks, radar detectors, and more. Magnesium meets the design challenges that are instrumental to consumer electronics becoming lighter, thinner, and more mobile. Components that house and protect highly sensitive technology inside these entertainment and communications devices must exhibit strength and durability to withstand daily abuse from being dropped, stepped on, bumped, banged around in transit, and survive even the ultimate test—teenagers.
June 2008 Issue #5 :Lighter Magnesium Improves Power Tool Performance
The power tool industry increasingly relies on die-cast magnesium components to offer durable, lighter weight designs that are easier to handle and manage over long work shifts—an important feature, especially for framing and construction crews on the job site. Renowned power tool manufacturers rely on magnesium alloys to greatly reduce a tool's weight without sacrificing power. Users may think that lighter weight means less power, but the opposite is true: using lighter die-cast magnesium for a pneumatic tool's housing or a worm drive power saw's gear case allows the design to accommodate a larger, more powerful motor for the same or less weight.
March 2008 Issue #4: Racing to the Finish with Magnesium
Magnesium alloy is becoming an essential material in today's racing bicycle components offering excellent durability, weight, and strength advantages. The winning combination of magnesium's high-strength and lower weight gives the rider a competitive edge. Be it bicycle frames, rims, crank, fork, or pedals, magnesium's light weight and vibration dampening characteristics maximize the bike's performance. In this issue, see examples and explanations of magnesium's role in setting new performance standards for racing bicycle design.
2007 Issues
December 2007 Issue #3: Magnesium Sets a New Protection Standard: Durability, Strength, and Cutting-Edge Style
A new era of magnesium-alloy-encased computer notebooks emphasizes lightness and toughness to support and protect the hottest technology contained within. Millions of notebook cases are being manufactured at a breakneck pace to satisfy continued demand for various notebook applications including business, industrial, public safety, military, gaming, and personal use. See how magnesium helps to deliver a superior product that capitalizes on magnesium's light weight, durability, and recyclability.
October 2007 Issue #2: Sculpting Magnesium: A Masterpiece in Furniture Design
See how magnesium's use in the automotive industry inspired a new, first-of-its-kind application. Lightweight, high-tech magnesium has crossed over from the purely industrial- and mechanical-type applications into the high visibility world of furniture design. See the world's first magnesium-framed chair, the Go Chair design, from conception to production. Its design blends science and nature, taking full advantage of magnesium's light weight and high strength-to-weight ratio. Once again, magnesium proves its versatility, meeting both the automotive and furniture industries' precision manufacturing requirements with simultaneous strength and style, further inspiring the unlimited and diverse design potential of magnesium.
May 2007 Premier Issue: Magnesium Fosters Rebirth of an Automotive Engine
Offering testimony to magnesium's significant role in the automotive industry, the premier issue highlights the R6 composite magnesium-aluminum alloy engine developed by Bavarian Motor Works' (BMW) Landshut, Germany plant in June 2004. Touted as the world's lightest 3.0 liter in-line six-cylinder gasoline engine, this issue emphasizes how weight reduction was the most important aspect of choosing magnesium for the engine's design resulting in significant weight savings while increasing power performance and fuel efficiency.
Inside Mg Showcase
Within each issue, magnesium's tangible difference will be featured with application examples highlighting its strength, durability, light weight, cost-savings, and recyclability, as well as the production processes required to produce the end-product. The Mg Showcase is organized in a fashion that makes it convenient for anyone to find information, giving the reader the option to read the story thoroughly or skim for facts, as well as a printer-friendly version for obtaining a copy of the story for perusing at a later date. |
