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New Zealand Engineering 1999 September Manufacturing
A Magnesium Future - from the beginning If a road cyclist goes all out to head off the rest of the field, he can become isolated beyond the support of his team, exposed and vulnerable to the challenges of other teams. The analogy seems appropriate to where New Zealand’s research investment into magnesium coatings has led. A sudden shortage of an urgently needed material triggered a science programme to discover what alternatives might be possible. After years of research, world firsts in the understanding of the advanced metal resulted. But the technology derived from that understanding is so advanced that the country risks losing a very large pay-off further down the track because few local applications are in sight to build on the investment. And other countries are well placed to attract our know-how to their shores. Magnesium research in New Zealand is a minor classic about necessity inspiring and nurturing invention. It is also about the struggle to reap early rewards to spur on those tenacious enough to invest in it, then reinvest in the precarious market beachhead established. Ten years ago in Wellington, window hardware manufacturer, Interlock, confronted the prospect of losing a large order when a supply of zinc alloy failed to arrive. At the last minute the company located and airfreighted in a reprieve supply, but the sense of panic told them it was time to look for alternatives. "We found we were caught at the wrong end of a very long supply line," said Interlock executive director Brett May, "so we went in search of a material to reduce our dependence on the zinc alloy. We settled on magnesium as it is abundant, and the stability of its price profile was attractive." Interlock converted an area of its operation to die-cast magnesium and installed equipment for the purpose. "Then we found the processing technology available at the time was not up to our design demands and standards of finish," Mr May said. "Coated magnesium alloys then were used for structural components and kept largely out of sight. We needed durable, decorative finishes, but they did not exist." Interlock He says, as it happens, Australia’s science lab CSIRO is home to world leaders in the die-casting of magnesium. Queensland is completing Australia’s first magnesium smelter with up to eight more possible. "If it decides it wants to, Australia can be a world leader in magnesium production," Dr Henshaw says. He is quick to point out New Zealand did not try and replicate Australia’s science effort, but complement it. "We consciously set out to develop an understanding of the coatings of the light metals," he said. Magnesium also appealed to the IRL team as appropriate technology for local industry to take up in tandem with Australia’s die-casting expertise, particularly for the export potential they saw for ultra-light, highly finished, high value products. They envisaged the local electronics industry could exploit the metal’s characteristics for casings and structural elements. They believed the metal was ideal for a host of sports related equipment, from golf clubs to high performance bicycles. Dr Henshaw describes the anodising process thus: the intrinsic or native film that magnesium forms on its surface has less molar volume than its parent metal. So if it is coated the underlying strata cracks and peels. Elements in the anodic bath where the metal is dipped, bulk up the oxide film, reducing its tensile stress and porosity. Further components are required to achieve thicker protective films to deliver higher corrosion resistance. The New Zealand understanding of high quality surface coatings for magnesium has advanced to the point where the technology is now being licensed internationally. Executives from Ford in the United States have made the pilgrimage to see first hand whether our knowledge can benefit them; besides electronics, the auto industry is the other major sector taking a keen interest in the metal. A team of Japanese researchers has similarly made the trek to IRL. Both visited Australia’s die-casters at CSIRO. Patents were applied for. The research began looking for a payday. IRL scientists approached John MacCulloch of Auckland Anodisers. Would his somewhat allied interests extend to magnesium coatings? It was the right type of approach at the right time. Mr MacCulloch was on the lookout for an international extension to grow his business. But his nondescript aluminium coatings factory in Onehunga’s industrial area is scarcely the place you would think to look for a world beating technology. Yet Mr MacCulloch is the sort of driven individual out to do just that – sell the new technology into Europe and the US. Take on the giants at their game in their own patch. He was prepared to back IRL’s magnesium anodising and colouring developments to do this by putting his small business on the line to pay for the marketing investment required. Naturally he is expecting to be well rewarded some day for the risk and the work.
Licences However, the costs up front and ongoing are just as significant. He says he is presently paying about $NZ100,000 a year for legal and patent protection fees. He has a royalty agreement with IRL to meet, and, while attending trade shows and cold calling overseas, the aluminium plant in Onehunga must be kept alive. Questions over money lead into a discussion over what the best marketing strategy for a new technology developed so far away from its main markets should be. First we need to recognise the benefits of the new processes on offer. "Magnesium is as different from aluminium as steel is from plastic," John MacCulloch says. His background as a chemical engineer includes 17 years in the aluminium anodising business. He notes the particular advantages of the metal: it flows extremely well, so it can be cast with intricate shape complexity; it can form rigid structural shells as thin as 0.6 mm – "you can’t do that with plastic"; it has excellent electromagnetic shielding properties; and conducts heat well, away from where computer innards heat up from eliminating redundant data; it has extremely light weight to strength characteristics, and is recyclable. With the new IRL technology it can also be coloured, organically. On the downside, the machining of magnesium alloys has seen powder filings catch fire destroying the whole job. Once suitably coated though, magnesium metals can deliver the light, strong, heat dissipating cases and internal structural elements computer designers long for. And the ever lighter though stronger structural members that the fuel conservation conscious auto industry is anxious to deploy. What’s more, he says the New Zealand process costs a third of the previous inferior coating, does not use heavy metals as the earlier processes did, and provides a much better finish. "There is an acknowledged global need for a new magnesium coating technology," he said. "There had been no work done since Dow Chemical Co., which had a magnesium division, developed castings in the 1930s and 40s. No one had gone back to this area and said all the research is in die-casting and smelting. IRL chose what proved to be a very fertile area to start researching at a time when the global manufacturers in the auto industry and electronics were all moving towards magnesium." Last month Interlock closed down its magnesium die-casting operation, to free up the plant for other work. Brett May says that while they have certainly not closed the door on magnesium, they are focusing on their core business. Nevertheless, the closure marks the end of magnesium manufacture in New Zealand at present. Only John MacCulloch’s laboratory generates income from offshore from the ten-year research programme, with IRL’s fundamental research trail blazing out in front. Lingering thoughts mull over how long they may expect to keep on the pace, ahead of the overseas pack, with no local clients and suppliers milling around. Gilbert Peterson is a freelance journalist and a former editor of New Zealand Manufacturer |
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