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| Press Release Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Photo:HZG/ Christian Schmid

New research facility for magnesium at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht

A new building containing a magnesium casting and rolling facility has been built at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Germany, for a value of about seven million Euros. This large casting and rolling facility was inaugurated on Wednesday, 28 of September, 2010. These new equipments will be used for research and development on magnesium sheet. They are further componens that complete the facilities of the Magnesium Innovation Centre, MagIC, to carry out the advanced R&D on magnesium technology at the Magnesium Innovation Centre, MagIC. The latter is a branch of the Geesthacht Institute of Materials Research.

A new building containing a magnesium casting and rolling facility has been built at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Germany, for a value of about seven million Euros. This large casting and rolling facility was inaugurated on Wednesday, 28 of September, 2010. These new equipments will be used for research and development on magnesium sheet. They are further componens that complete the facilities of the Magnesium Innovation Centre, MagIC, to carry out the advanced R&D on magnesium technology at the Magnesium Innovation Centre, MagIC. The latter is a branch of the Geesthacht Institute of Materials Research.

Scientists at the casting-rolling mill

Photo:HZG/ Christian Schmid

Magnesium is an excellent, light-weight structural material that is gaining more interest in modern transportation technology due to greenhouse gas emission reduction by using light-weight vehicles. Accordingly, resource-sparing and light-weight construction designs are the way of the future. The Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht already holds a worldwide leading position in the field of magnesium research, and will continue to extend this lead in the future.

“We were able to establish the hall and all components for the facility here in Geesthacht thanks to grants amounting to around seven million euros from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and from the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Niedersachsen and Brandenburg,” scientific director of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kaysser said with delight.

More than 50 scientists and engineers at the Magnesium Innovation Centre will use these facilities to design and develop new types of high-performance magnesium sheet which makes MagIC an important part of the Helmholtz Association’s strategy to develop key technologies for the future.

Aluminium receives light competition

Suitable materials can be developed and produced at this facility, bringing future industrial applications of magnesium sheet ever closer. Production processes are accelerated, and magnesium need directly competes to the presently more affordable aluminium.

Head of MagIC, Director Institute of Materials Research Prof. Dr. Karl Ulrich Kainer states: “The facility is a beacon: Together with partners from industry and research, we are adding a new dimension to this technology in Geesthacht. This will surely reinforce the advantage of this location for mobile light-weight construction in Germany.”