Elektron (alloy)

Not to be confused with electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver.
For other uses, see Elektron (disambiguation) and Electron (disambiguation).

The B1 bomb, which uses Elektron materials

Elektron is the registered trademark of a wide range of magnesium alloys manufactured by a British company, Magnesium Elektron Limited.

There are about 100 alloys in the Elektron range, containing from 0% to 9.5% of some of the following elements in varying proportions: aluminium (< 9.5%), yttrium (5.25%), neodymium (2.7%), silver (2.5%), gadolinium (1.3%), zinc (0.9%), zirconium (0.6%), manganese (0.5%) and other rare-earth metals.[1]

Varying amounts of alloying elements (up to 9.5%) added to the magnesium result in changes to mechanical properties such as increased tensile strength, creep resistance, thermal stability or corrosion resistance. Elektron is unusually light and has a specific gravity of about 1.8 compared with the 2.8 of aluminium alloy, or the 7.9 of steel.[2] Magnesium's relatively low density makes its alloy variants suitable for use in auto racing and aerospace engineering applications.

  1. ^ Woldman, Norman E. (2000). John P. Frick (ed.). Woldman's Engineering Alloys. Materials data series. ASM International. pp. 394–396. ISBN 9780871706911.
  2. ^ "Glossary E". Aeroplane Monthly. Archived from the original on 12 February 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2010.