Emerging Applications Using Magnesium Alloy Powders: A Feasibility Study

Abstract

The use of powder metallurgy offers a potential processing route based on tailored compositions and unique microstructures to achieve high performance in magnesium alloys. This paper highlights recent advances in the production, qualification, and characterization of gas atomized AZ91E, WE43 and Elektron21 alloy powders. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to understand the bulk and surface structure of the atomized powder. The potential for using these magnesium alloy powders for emerging applications involves establishing compatibility with viable consolidation processes such as cold spray, laser assisted deposition, forging and extrusion. This study summarizes the preliminary results for various ongoing investigations using WE43 powder as an example. Results show that powder metallurgy processed WE43 results in comparable properties to those obtained from cast and wrought and offers potential for improvement.