Mechanical Properties of Energy Absorbing Magnesium Alloys

The development of commercial magnesium die casting alloys has progressed over the past several decades. The most common die casting alloy, AZ91D with 9% aluminum content, has been and still is used in many structural automotive applications.

New magnesium alloys have been developed in the past several years to meet the needs of structural applications that require an appreciable amount of energy absorption during service. Magnesium alloys having lower aluminum content, such as AM50 and AM20, were developed by Norsk Hydro and found to be more ductile, especially during impact situations. Their immediate use was focused towards applications such as automotive seat frames and instrument panel/cross-car beams.

This paper provides mechanical property data on the “AM-Type” magnesium alloys. These alloys consist primarily of aluminum and manganese additions to magnesium to increase the energy absorption attributes of the base metal.