Casting Magnesium Alloy with Improved Thermal Conductivity

In competing with aluminium alloys as structural materials, magnesium alloys have advantages of low density, high strength ratio, better electromagnetic shielding properties and castability. These result in the preferential use of magnesium alloys in components where lightweight and electromagnetic shielding is critical. However, the currently used magnesium alloys have inferior thermal conductivity in comparison with its competitive aluminium alloys. For example, the commonly used AZ91D (Mg-9wt.%Al-1wt.%Zn) magnesium alloy has the thermal conductivity of 51 W/m·K at 20°C and the commonly used A380 (Al-9wt.%Si-3wt.%Cu) aluminium alloy has the thermal conductivity of 108 W/m·K at 20°C.

These new casting magnesium alloys can provide significantly improved thermal conductivity in comparison to the commonly used AZ91D magnesium alloys. The typical thermal conductivity of the new magnesium alloy is comparable to the thermal conductivity of the commonly used A380 aluminium alloy (see attached data sheet).

It is important to improve the thermal conductivity of magnesium alloys because thermal conductivity is critical in the applications specifically for increasing the capacity of heat exchange and heat sink of engineering components. The improved thermal conductivity can reduce the working temperatures of final products and therefore increase the energy efficiency and product life. This is particularly important when combining the advantages of lightweighting, better electromagnetic shielding properties and castability for magnesium alloys.

Potential application in:

• Electric automotive industry for lightweighting and improved thermal conductivity
• Electronics, in particular the heat exchanger with complicated shapes.
• Other transport manufacturing, such as train, motorbikes.
• Soldier-carrying equipment

Intellectual property status

Patent already applied for

Patent application number : WO2020221752

Where : Worldwide

Current development status

Experimental technologies

Desired business relationship

Patent licensing

Technology development