THE NEXT GENERATION OF MAGNESIUM BASED MATERIAL TO SUSTAIN THE IPCC POLICY

Current Mg alloys have several drawbacks that limit wide and profitable utilization in the industrial sector. From an environmental point of view, lighter metals like magnesium are currently considered unclean products as they require energyintensive. But they have been proven to be “clean” in the transport sector, as they can reduce fuel consumption. Here the potential of magnesium based materials is addressed through double-tasking: a) establish innovative lean-manufacturing processes, avoid the classic melting step to substantially reduce carbon footprint of the magnesium products; b) encourage the using of no-melt processes, realizing high-resistant ultra-fined microstructures. The "Green Metallurgy 2020", a project funded by European Community in the LIFE+ 2009 Program, started in September 2010, coordinated by Politecnico di Milano (ITA) aims to scale to industrial route such impressive results experienced by CENIM (SPA) for some ultrafine bi-phase Mg –Zr (-Y) produced by nomelting route that achieved up to 400 MPa UTS and elongation capability of about 13%.