Machinability of Magnesium and Its Alloys

Abstract

Magnesium and magnesium alloys are used in a wide variety of structural applications including portable microelectronics and telecommunication, automotive, materials-handling and aerospace industries due to their low density. The utilization of magnesium alloys as automotive components is remarkably effective to reduce vehicle weight leading to both reduced discharge of air pollutants (i.e. CO2, SOX and NOX emissions) and energy consumption. Another emerging area of Mg and its alloys are biomedical applications as biodegradable materials which may lead them to become next-generation materials. One of the main drawbacks of the Mg and its alloys is their machinability since their chips during machining can be ignited suddenly leading to fire problems. Therefore, new machining methods have to be adopted for machining Mg and its alloys. The aim of this study was to review the machining methods of Mg and its alloys and evaluate the results as a function of their alloy composition and machining parameters.