The magnesium is very abundant in nature: eco-friendly, durable, lightweight, easily standardized and it is becoming more and more a replacement for aluminum and carbon. I
n China today also hooks or pots of flowers are manufactured in magnesium. To produce a bicycle frame in carbon fiber takes 500 euro, with 8 euro you can do it in magnesium, not to mention that it is a material that weighs less and it is more robust. The International Magnesium Association speaks at an annual increase of 8% of the world consumption of magnesium, but in China (which produces 73% of the metal then worked around the globe), the annual growth rate has exceeded 20% from the beginning to the present millennium. “It is not a coincidence that 77 million bikes in magnesium circulate in China, and in Russia they are 20 million, and neither is the fact that ThyssenKrupp has converted an entire steel mill in the processing of this metal being increasingly used in the automotive industry. It costs a twentieth of carbon fiber, weighs 35% less than aluminum and is 20% stronger, ” says Maurizio Valentini, project manager of Mg 12 Network, a network of 34 companies focused on this material, promoted by Unindustria of Bologna. The applications of this material ranging from automotive and aerospace design objects to the biomedical industry. In Europe, the magnesium is no longer produced for the impact of energy costs, but MG12 Network can count on forty patents and assets on the widespread availability of semi-finished product on the market: Magnesium is the eighth most abundant element in the crust terrestrial and the third most present in the water. The first European company to put into serial production of magnesium was Maserati, in 1927. And since then the specialization of the chain remained. Mg12 aims at studying new applications based on this metal ecological and hi-tech and create an academy that will spread the knowledge and processing.
