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Magnesium alloy forged wheels – new direction of automotive lightweighting

Automotive lightweight has always been the direction of automotive manufacturing technology development, of which the lightweight of automotive wheels is the focus. How to make the weight of the wheel reduce? Material is the key. The emergence of aluminum alloy wheels is a good example. As an upgraded product of steel wheels, it occupies the absolute advantage in the middle and high-end models. So is there a lighter wheel than aluminum wheels? The answer is yes, that is, magnesium alloy forged wheels.

Magnesium alloy material characteristics

Magnesium density is 1.74, is 2/3 of aluminum, steel 1/4. magnesium alloy as the lightest engineering metal materials, with light specific gravity, high specific strength and specific stiffness, damping and cutting processability, good thermal conductivity, electromagnetic shielding ability, good vibration damping, easy to recycle and a series of unique properties, become the first choice of modern automotive and 3C industry materials, known as ” 21″ century green engineering materials. Magnesium alloy material characteristics

The density of magnesium is 1.74, which is 2/3 of aluminum and 1/4 of steel. magnesium alloy as the lightest engineering metal material, with light specific gravity, high specific strength and stiffness, good damping and cutting processability, good thermal conductivity, strong electromagnetic shielding ability, good vibration damping, easy to recycle and a series of unique properties, become the first choice of modern automotive and 3C industry materials, known as ” 21″ century green engineering materials.

The advantages of magnesium alloy wheels

Magnesium alloy forged wheels

Magnesium alloy wheels bring advantages to the car is obvious. Magnesium alloy wheels can reduce the overall weight of the car 1.5-2.5%, can effectively improve fuel efficiency and reduce environmental pollution. To ordinary 15-inch car wheels, for example, steel wheels weigh 8.2 kg, aluminum alloy wheels weigh 6.2 kg, while magnesium alloy wheels weigh only 4.2 kg. The whole vehicle application of magnesium alloy wheels than aluminum-aluminum alloy wheels to reduce the weight of about 8 kg, lighter than steel wheels 16 kg, the weight reduction of the vehicle contributed greatly.

forged racing wheels

Magnesium alloy wheel production process

At present, there are two production processes for wheels on the market, one is casting and the other is forging. However, for magnesium alloy wheels, the forging process is more suitable for production. Forging can make the metal metallographic organization dense, the grain is broken, the organization is strengthened, forging state organization. Single mechanical property index, forging generally improve 30% – 50%, individual index several times higher. Forging increases the strength of the material and allows for the design of wheel structures with thinner rims and spokes, resulting in a reduction in mass.

Lighter wheels means that the vehicle can get better acceleration, braking performance and fuel economy, and magnesium alloy has excellent energy absorption and shock absorption performance, used in the front wheels, can be in the vehicle turning, uphill can effectively reduce the phenomenon of head pushing, improve handling performance; used in the rear wheels, can reduce inertia to shorten the braking distance, effective control of tailing to improve safety.

“One kilogram under the spring, ten kilograms on the spring”. As part of the underspring, reducing the weight of the wheel can improve the fuel efficiency of the vehicle to a certain extent. Although, compared to iron and aluminum wheels, magnesium alloy wheels are a bit more expensive, but the savings in fuel costs are enough to pay for themselves. Therefore, the use of lighter than aluminum alloy forged magnesium alloy wheels has become a new direction of automotive lightweight, providing a new solution for the weight reduction of the car. Under the trend of energy saving and emission reduction, forged magnesium alloy wheels cater to the demand of lightweight and environmental protection of today’s automobiles, and are expected to be favored by the market and used in large quantities.