Reduction of automobile weight is an important approach toreducing fuel consumption. Magnesium alloys would offer thepotential for significant weight reductions if they were morereadily formed and their stiffness could be increased. Highstrain rate superplastic forming offers a cost effective routefor the production of automotive components. However, to besuperplastic, magnesium alloys must possess a unique set ofmicrostructural features. Magnesium alloy systems which possesssuch microstructures are not readily available. Recently anewclass of low cost, corrosion resistant, oxide dispersionstrengthened (ODS) magnesium alloys have been synthesized by anovel liquid metal process. These materials meet themicrostructural requirements for superplasticity and based onprevious research, should be superplastic at strain ratesconsistent with conventional forming processes (10¿ to 10l/s).These ODS alloys also offer a 45 to 190% increase in stiffnesscompared to conventional magnesium alloys. During Phase I, ODSmagnesium alloys will be produced, extruded, and tensile testedat elevated temperatures and a variety of strain rates todetermine if they are indeed superplastic.Anticipated Results /Potential Commercial Applications as described by the awardee: If ODS magnesium is superplastic athigh strain rates, it represents a generic approach to theproduction of low cost, high performance magnesium alloy systemswhich can be economically formed into automotive components.These components would reduce the weight of automobiles,improving their fuel efficiency and thereby reducing ourdependence on foreign oil.
