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Magnesium alloy is highly anticipated for application in lightweight structural material. Professors of Toyohashi University of Technology has developed a new technology to enhance magnesium alloy and allow it to maintain strength without mixing with an expensive rare metal called Yttrium, while cutting the price down to one fifth. This new magnesium alloy is expected for use in small drones, cars, screws, and phones.

The professors put a common magnesium alloy bar into a die and press work it, so that the super-micro nedddle-shape structure overlaps and increases strength. In trial manufacture, the adopted maximal tensile strength was as high as 50kg/mm2 and the resulting strength was 20% more than that of alloy mixed with rare metal.

The university will team up with Kawamoto Heavy Industries and deliver rods of 2cm diameters. They will also develop rods of 5cm diameters. The price is around JPY 50,000, only one fifth of alloy mixed with rare metal. The future target price is to reach as low as one tenth of the original.