Unlocking Magnesium for Lightweight Vehicle Castings
发布时间 2023-11-21 16:10:11 来源
Welcome back everyone, I'm Jordan Geesege, and this is The Limiting Factor. As part of my Gigacasting series, I hinted to the fact that magnesium castings would weigh 33% less than aluminum castings, and that magnesium is the lightest structural metal. If that's the case, why are companies like Tesla using magnesium gigacasting for vehicles instead of aluminum castings? In short, it's because magnesium components historically faced a number of engineering challenges.
欢迎大家回来，我是乔丹·吉斯吉，这里是《限制因素》节目。在我的《巨卡斯特》系列中，我暗示了镁铸件的重量要比铝铸件轻33％，而且镁是最轻的结构金属。既然如此，为什么像特斯拉这样的公司会在车辆中使用镁巨型铸造而不是铝铸件呢？简而言之，这是因为历史上镁零部件面临着许多工程挑战。
In today's video, we'll look at how each of those challenges have been addressed in the last couple of decades, or will be addressed in the next few years by some of the biggest players in the industry, like E-DRA. As with the Gigacasting series, this video kicks off a new series on magnesium, and it'll be followed by at least three other videos that explore the engineering solutions covered briefly today in much greater technical depth, along with their implications.
在今天的视频中，我们将看看过去几十年中这些挑战是如何得到解决的，或者在未来几年中将如何被该行业的一些最大参与者（如E-DRA）解决。就像Gigacasting系列一样，这个视频开始了一个关于镁的新系列，并且至少还会有三个其他视频，更深入地探讨了今天简要介绍的工程解决方案及其影响。
Before we begin, a special thanks to my Patreon supporters, YouTube members, and Twitter subscribers, as well as RebellionAir.com. They specialize in helping investors manage concentrated positions. RebellionAir can help with covered calls, risk management, and creating a money master planned from your financial first principles.
在我们开始之前，特别感谢我的Patreon支持者、YouTube会员和Twitter订阅者，以及RebellionAir.com。他们专注于帮助投资者管理集中持仓。RebellionAir可以帮助你进行备兑认购、风险管理，并根据你的财务首要原则创建一个理财计划。
Magnesium ability is the first challenge for magnesium. Pure magnesium readily ignites at around 500 degrees Celsius, and that's often cited as a reason why large magnesium castings aren't viable for vehicles. But that thinking is reductionist, and there's a lot more to the story. Let's start with the worst case scenario, pure magnesium. Most people's first experience with magnesium was from high school science class, where the teacher might burn a strip of magnesium to show off its brilliant white flame. However, when magnesium is used in products, you're looking at a much larger piece of magnesium, and it's almost never pure magnesium.
镁能力是镁的第一个挑战。纯镁在大约500摄氏度时就会迅速发火，这也经常被引用为大型镁铸件不适用于车辆的原因。但这种观点是片面的，事实远不止如此。我们先从最糟糕的情况，也就是纯镁开始说起。大多数人对镁的第一次接触可能是在高中科学课上，老师燃烧一根镁带来展示其明亮的白色火焰。然而，当镁被用于产品中时，你所看到的是一块更大的镁材料，而且它几乎从不是纯镁。
As for the former, a larger piece of magnesium takes much more energy to heat, and magnesium also has high thermal conductivity, which allows it to dissipate heat rapidly. Thanks to this clip by Magrathia for today's video, we can see that it takes minutes or longer rather than seconds to ignite an ingot of magnesium. What's happening here is that the magnesium ingot is absorbing a lot of energy, and it's heating up. But the energy input from the flame is being balanced by heat conduction away from the flame. That heat dissipation effect is so strong that with the amount of heat being applied here, the ingot may actually never ignite. What this means is that even if pure magnesium was used in a vehicle, it wouldn't be a risk for triggering vehicle fires, and it's far safer than substances that are already used in vehicles like oil or gasoline that are triggers for vehicle fires. Note that I said to trigger the vehicle fire. Extinguishing a vehicle fire is another story. More on that in a moment.
就前者而言，较大尺寸的镁需要更多的能量来加热，并且镁具有很高的导热性，可以迅速散热。感谢Magrathia的这个视频剪辑，我们可以看到点燃镁块需要几分钟甚至更长时间，而不是几秒钟。这里发生的情况是镁块正在吸收大量能量并加热。但是，火焰输入的能量被传导导热平衡。这种热量散失效应非常强大，以至于在此施加的热量下，镁块可能实际上永远不会点燃。这意味着即使在车辆中使用纯镁，也不会触发车辆火灾的风险，而且比已经在车辆中使用的添加剂如油或汽油的风险更安全。请注意，我说的是触发车辆火灾。扑灭车辆火灾是另一回事。稍后会有更多解释。
As a side note, one thing that's often missed when discussing the flammability of magnesium is that other metals such as iron and aluminum can also ignite in the right conditions, such as when they're in powder form, molten, or exposed to oxygen. So although magnesium is more flammable than iron and aluminum, the fact that it is flammable doesn't make it unique among structural metals. It's just that the risk of flammability is higher. But again, it's far less flammable than most of the other materials used in a vehicle.
顺便提一句，谈论镁的可燃性时经常被忽略的一点是，其他金属例如铁和铝在适当条件下同样可以点燃，比如当它们处于粉末状态、熔化或接触到氧气时。因此，尽管镁比铁和铝更易燃，但它的可燃性并不是结构金属中特有的。只是其可燃风险更高而已。但再次强调一点，它比车辆中使用的大多数其他材料都要不易燃。
Now that we've looked at pure magnesium, let's take a look at the impact of alloys on flammability. The magnesium alloys commonly used in consumer products have a better balance of properties than pure metal. One of those properties is fire resistance. Alloys starting with the codes AZ, AM, AS, and AE are commonly used in automotive parts. They have ignition temperatures that are about 50 to 100 degrees Celsius higher than pure magnesium. And as we'll see in a moment, they burn less intensely.
现在我们已经了解了纯镁的情况，让我们来看看合金对易燃性的影响。在消费品中常用的镁合金具有比纯金属更好的性能平衡。其中之一就是防火性能。以AZ、AM、AS和AE开头的合金常用于汽车零部件。它们的点火温度比纯镁高约50到100摄氏度。并且正如我们马上要看到的，它们燃烧的密度较低。
More recent advances in fire resistant alloys from the Austrian Institute of Technology, or AIT, show that the addition of calcium and atrium allow magnesium to be heated to its molten state and it doesn't ignite. That was confirmed in testing by the Federal Aviation Administration and the alloy has been approved for use in jets. It's not clear how much calcium and atrium AIT use to achieve that result. But their patent application indicates that it's likely between 0-1% calcium and 0.05-0.6% atrium. So the dopants only made up a fraction of the alloy. Let's look at a video of how it performs versus more common alloys.
奥地利技术研究院（AIT）最新的防火合金的研究进展表明，添加钙和锶使镁能够加热到熔融状态而不发生燃烧。美国联邦航空管理局对此进行了测试确认，并批准该合金用于喷气式飞机。目前还不清楚AIT使用了多少钙和锶来达到这个结果。但他们的专利申请表明这可能是在0-1%的钙和0.05-0.6%的锶之间。因此掺杂剂仅构成了合金的一小部分。让我们观看一个视频来比较其与更常见的合金的性能。
On screen is a video from AIT comparing magnesium alloys such as AZ-91 and AM-60 with the calcium and atrium alloy. Bear in mind that they've used small pieces of magnesium for demonstration purposes to accelerate the speed that melting and ignition occur.
屏幕上显示着一段由AIT制作的视频，比较了镁合金，如AZ-91和AM-60，与钙和铝合金的性能。请注意，他们使用了小块镁进行示范，以加速熔化和点燃速度。
After about 1.5 minutes they both melt. However, whereas the AZ-91 and AM-60 alloy goes into thermal runaway and slowly catches on fire, the AIT alloy remains in its molten state and doesn't catch on fire. This shows that common alloys have better thermal performance when exposed to flame and fuel. That's because magnesium fires react violently to water and the amount of magnesium that's already used for vehicles is a safety concern for firefighters.
大约1.5分钟后，这两种合金都会熔化。然而，相比之下，AZ-91和AM-60合金会发生热失控并缓慢起火，而AIT合金则保持在熔融状态而不起火。这表明当暴露在火焰和燃料中时，常见合金具有更好的热性能。这是因为镁火遇水会剧烈反应，而目前用于车辆的镁含量已成为消防人员的安全隐患。
With that said, the challenge with magnesium fires needs to be put in perspective. Batter fires are familiar with putting out magnesium fires in vehicles because it's been used by the automotive industry for about 100 years already. That's as opposed to battery fires which arguably pose a greater challenge for firefighters.
就此而言，我们需要客观看待镁火的挑战。汽车领域已经使用镁制品约100年，因此处理镁火对于消防员来说是件家常便饭。相比之下，电池火引起的火灾对于消防员来说可能更具挑战性。
Why? First, because battery fires are self-sustaining electrochemical fires that can reignite weeks after the fire is presumed to be out. Second, because there's usually about a quarter ton of battery cells in an EV that are encased in a metallic enclosure deep in the core of the vehicle, which means they can be difficult to access and extinguish and can take days to cool off. Third, because they generate toxic fumes such as hydrogen fluoride. That's as opposed to magnesium which reacts with oxygen to form magnesium oxide, which the body can process. So the main concern would be all the other materials burning in the vehicle fire, like paint, plastic, and other metals like aluminum.
为什么呢？首先，电池火灾是自持续的电化学火灾，可能在火势熄灭的几周后重新燃起。其次，电动车通常携带大约四分之一吨的电池单元，这些单元被包裹在车辆核心的金属外壳中，这意味着它们很难被接近和扑灭，并且可能需要几天的时间来冷却。第三，电动车火灾还会产生像氟化氢这样的有毒气体。与之相反，镁会与氧气反应形成氧化镁，而人体可以处理。因此，主要的担忧是车辆火灾中其他燃烧材料，例如油漆、塑料和类似铝的其他金属。
Fire departments are adapting by using fire blankets to help control and extinguish fires and burying the cars in sand for a week to prevent re-ignition risks. Interestingly, the same or similar strategies used for battery fires will also work on magnesium fires, but that's a topic for another video.
消防部门正在通过使用灭火毯帮助控制和扑灭火灾，并将车辆埋在沙子中一周以防止再次起火危险。有趣的是，用于电池火灾的相同或类似策略也适用于镁火灾，但这是另一个视频的话题。
Overall, the key message here is that magnesium won't trigger a vehicle fire, and although a vehicle fire that involves magnesium is more difficult to put out than a regular vehicle fire, it may actually be a smaller concern for firefighters than the battery pack of the vehicle. That is, the flammability of magnesium is commonly put forward as the reason why it isn't used more heavily in vehicles, but that's not the technical reality.
总体来说，这里的关键信息是镁不会引发车辆火灾，尽管涉及镁的车辆火灾比普通车辆火灾更难扑灭，但对于消防员来说，它可能比车辆电池组的火灾更不成问题。也就是说，镁的易燃性常常被作为它在车辆中没有得到广泛使用的原因，但这并不是技术上的实际情况。
Let's move on to the next challenge with magnesium, which is that it's highly susceptible to corrosion from chemicals like sodium chloride. Once again, while corrosion makes pure magnesium fundamentally unviable, with the right alloys and surface treatments, magnesium fares well against corrosion, and there's a lot of work being done to improve that even further.
让我们继续进行下一个镁的挑战，那就是它对钠氯等化学物质极易腐蚀。再一次地，尽管腐蚀使纯镁基本上不可行，但通过适当的合金和表面处理，镁对抗腐蚀能力较强，并且有很多工作正在进行中以进一步改善这一点。
For example, in 2021, researchers from the Helmholtz Center for Materials and Coastal Research in Gestach reported a new magnesium alloy that's so corrosion resistant that they called it stainless magnesium. On-screen are some of the images from that research where three alloys were exposed to extreme corrosion conditions.
例如，在2021年，德国赫尔姆霍兹材料和海岸研究中心的研究人员报告了一种新的镁合金，其耐腐蚀性能非常出色，被称为不锈镁。屏幕上显示了该研究中的一些图像，其中三种合金暴露在极端腐蚀条件下。
On the far right is a common AZ-91 magnesium alloy, which in newer blends tends to have good corrosion resistance similar to aluminum. And the center is an E-21 magnesium alloy with great corrosion resistance. And on the far left is a new alloy using only 0.15% calcium that has excellent corrosion resistance. After six months in a solution of 3.5% sodium chloride, the AZ-91 is fully degraded. The E-21 is showing pitting and surface corrosion. And the new 0.15% calcium alloy is just starting to show some surface corrosion.
在最右边是一种常见的AZ-91镁合金，新型合金往往具有类似铝的良好耐蚀性。中间是一种具有良好耐蚀性的E-21镁合金。而最左边是一种新合金，只含0.15%的钙，具有优异的抗腐蚀性。在3.5%氯化钠溶液中经过六个月，AZ-91完全降解。E-21出现了点蚀和表面腐蚀。而新的0.15%钙合金只是开始出现一些表面腐蚀。
How does that work? The researchers claimed that for the stainless magnesium, the calcium creates a protective surface film and stabilizes impurities within the alloy to reduce the corrosive effects of the sodium chloride solution. And because the calcium is used in such small amounts, it's able to do that while maintaining the properties of pure magnesium. That is, just like we saw with flammability, there's alloys available to mitigate the corrosion challenges with magnesium. It's also worth noting that besides corrosion resistant alloys, magnesium parts can also be coated in a number of ways to further increase corrosion resistance. So if there is a use case that requires even better performance, there are solutions available.
这是如何工作的呢？研究人员声称，对于不锈镁来说，钙能够形成一层保护性的表面膜，并稳定合金中的杂质，从而减少氯化钠溶液的腐蚀效应。而且由于钙的用量非常小，它能够同时保持纯镁的性能。也就是说，就像我们在可燃性方面所看到的，有合金可以减轻镁的腐蚀挑战。还值得注意的是，除了耐腐蚀合金外，镁零件还可以通过多种方式进行涂层，以进一步增加耐腐蚀性能。因此，如果存在需要更好性能的使用情况，也有解决方案可供选择。
Before we move on, it's worth making two more notes on alloys. First, over the past several decades, dozens of magnesium alloys have been developed that offer not just corrosion and fire resistance, but also a range of strength and ductility characteristics. Thanks to that, magnesium is already being used for or considered for use in a number of automotive components. That is, for the most part, the range of performance characteristics offered by magnesium alloys already make magnesium the preferred metal for a number of use cases. So what's actually holding magnesium back? We'll take a look at that in a moment. As a side note, I'm focused on automotive use cases today and that'll continue throughout the series because that's where I see the biggest and most exciting opportunities for magnesium in the coming years.
在我们继续之前，值得注意的是有关合金的另外两点。首先，在过去的几十年中，已经开发出数十种镁合金，不仅具有耐腐蚀和防火性能，而且还具有一系列的强度和延展性特点。正因为如此，镁已经被用于或被考虑用于许多汽车零部件。总而言之，镁合金所提供的性能特点范围，已经使镁成为许多使用案例中首选的金属。那么，实际上是什么在阻碍着镁的发展呢？我们稍后会详细探讨这个问题。附带一提，我今天专注于汽车使用案例，并且在接下来的系列中会继续讨论，因为我认为在未来几年里，汽车行业将面临最大和最令人兴奋的镁材机遇。
The second note on alloys is that even if there is a use case that magnesium alloys haven't been developed for yet, more alloys can always be developed. As I showed in my Gigacasting Alloy video, Tesla's Gigacasting process was a new use case with new requirements, so they developed a new alloy. The link for that video is in the card above.
关于合金的第二个要点是，即使目前还没有为镁合金开发出特定的应用场景，我们仍然可以不断地开发更多的合金。正如我在《吉加铸造合金》视频中展示的那样，特斯拉的吉加铸造工艺是一个新的应用场景，具有全新的要求，所以他们研发了一种新的合金。视频链接请查看上方的卡片。
Next, let's move on to size limits. In the past, it was possible to make large magnesium castings, to make magnesium castings at a high production rate and to make ultra high quality magnesium castings, but not all three at the same time. For example, typical molten metal and cold chamber die casting can create large castings at a fast rate, but those parts tend to have high porosity. That is, they're lower quality than what other methods can produce, but the magnesium casting industry is about to change.
接下来，让我们转向尺寸限制。过去，制造大型镁铸件，以高产量制造镁铸件和制造超高质量镁铸件是有可能的，但无法同时兼顾这三个因素。例如，typical molten metal和冷室压铸可以以快速的速度制造大型铸件，但这些部件往往具有较高的多孔性。也就是说，它们的质量低于其他方法可以生产的铸件，但镁铸件行业即将发生改变。
Idra, which was the first supplier for Tesla's Gigacasting machines, recently gave a talk where they shared a roadmap for 2025 for magnesium chip casting, where they indicate that they intend to produce what they refer to as Gigaplast machines that can support shot weights for magnesium castings of up to 20 kilograms. The best information I can find indicates that these types of machines were previously limited to shot weights of around 10 kilograms, but even that is a recent development from earlier this year, and most machines up until a few years ago were limited to less than 5 kilograms.
Idra是特斯拉的Gigacasting机器的首个供应商。最近，他们进行了一次讲座，分享了他们在2025年镁合金铸件领域的路线图。他们表示，他们计划生产所谓的Gigaplast机器，能够支持镁合金铸件的最大投料重量为20公斤。根据我所能找到的最好的信息，这些类型的机器以前的投料重量一般限制在约10公斤左右，甚至这个限制是今年早些时候的最新发展，大部分机器直到几年前还限制在不到5公斤。
The question is, are the Gigaplast machines able to produce those large castings at high speed and ultra high quality? In short, yes. First, with regards to production rate, magnesium has a lower heat of fusion and it's less dense than aluminum, which means for the same amount of cooling power and volume of material, magnesium solidifies more quickly. Additionally, molten magnesium is less reactive with the die, or metal mold of the Gigacast machine, which means that cast magnesium parts aren't as prone to sticking to the die and can be removed easily. That's as opposed to aluminum, which does tend to chemically attack and stick to the die, making it more difficult to remove the castings. The combination of those two things means that the cycle time for magnesium castings tends to be faster than for aluminum castings. So at a first principles level, speed won't be an issue for Eadra's magnesium chip casting machines.
问题是，Gigaplast机器能否以高速和超高质量生产那些大型铸件？简而言之，答案是肯定的。首先，就生产速度而言，镁的熔化热和密度都较铝低，这意味着在相同的冷却能力和材料体积下，镁能更快凝固。此外，熔融的镁与Gigacast机器的模具金属反应性较低，这意味着铸造的镁零部件不容易粘附在模具上，可以轻松取出。相比之下，铝会与模具发生化学反应并粘附在上面，使得取出铸件更加困难。这两个因素的结合意味着镁铸件的循环时间倾向于比铝铸件更快。因此，从基本原理上来看，Eadra的镁片铸造机器的速度不会成为问题。
Second, what about quality? The chip casting that Eadra refers to is a thixomolding process, where magnesium chips are fed into an auger. The auger is surrounded by heating elements that warm the chips until they're semi-solid, like the consistency of soft butter before being injected into the die chamber. That butter-like consistency means that when it's injected into the die chamber, there's no turbulence like there is with the fully molten metal used for aluminum casting, which means fewer voids in the material, which in turn means higher part quality and consistency. Why does that matter? As Sandimon Ro said in a recent video, thixomolded parts bring the performance of cast parts closer to the performance of a forged part, which means lighter and stronger parts. That in turn means magnesium will become much more competitive with cast aluminum parts as a structural component within the vehicle. Thixomolded Magnesium may even open the door to massive magnesium underbody castings that may replace their aluminum counterparts, which could remove tens of kilograms of mass from vehicles while creating a better overall driving experience. I'll get deeper into that in the next video.
其次，质量方面怎么样呢？Eadra所提到的芯片铸造是一种热塑成型工艺，将镁芯片投入到一个搅拌器中。搅拌器被加热元件包围，使芯片加热至半固态，类似于软黄油的浓稠度，在注入到模腔之前。这种类似黄油的浓稠度意味着当它注入到模腔时，与用于铝铸造的全熔融金属相比，不会产生湍流，这意味着材料中的空隙更少，进而意味着更高的零件质量和一致性。为什么这很重要呢？正如Sandimon Ro在最近的一个视频中所说的，热塑成型零件使其性能接近锻造零件，这意味着更轻、更坚固的零件。这反过来意味着镁将作为车辆结构零件比铸铝零件更具竞争力。热塑成型的镁甚至可能打开大尺寸镁合金车底铸件的大门，取代其铝合金对应件，从而在减轻车辆质量的同时创造更好的整体驾驶体验。我将在下一个视频中更深入地探讨这个问题。
Next, availability and cost are closely related, so I'll cover them at the same time. I'll start with availability because it drives cost.
接下来，可用性和成本是密切相关的，所以我会同时讨论它们。我先从可用性开始，因为它会影响成本。
This image shows that roughly 950,000 tons of magnesium were produced in 2021, which is small compared to its closest functional competitor, Aluminum, which saw 68 million tons of production in 2021.
该图显示，2021年大约生产了约950万吨的镁，与其最近的功能竞争对手铝相比较小。而铝在2021年的生产量达到了6800万吨。
Why is magnesium produced in such low volumes? Is there a resource constraint here? The answer is no. Like aluminum, magnesium is an abundant rock-forming element. In fact, when I looked up the US Geological Survey data on magnesium, it's so plentiful that they don't even bother listing reserves, but rather just say that the reserves are sufficient for any potential future needs.
为什么镁的生产量如此之低？这里是否存在资源约束？答案是否定的。与铝一样，镁是一种丰富的岩石形成元素。实际上，当我查阅美国地质调查局关于镁的数据时，镁的储量是如此之丰富，以至于他们甚至不费力地列出了储备，只是简单地说储备足够满足任何潜在的未来需求。
If it's not a resource issue, is it an extraction issue? At a fundamental level, no. There have been ways to extract magnesium since the 1800s, but it wasn't until World War I that high productivity modern processes began being developed, and it wasn't until World War II that a forcing function was created to scale production. That should give a hint as to why magnesium is produced in such low volumes. Its closest competitor, Aluminum, had a head start.
如果不是资源问题，那么是提取问题吗？从根本上来说，不是。自18世纪以来就有提取镁的方法，但直到第一次世界大战时才开始开发高生产率的现代化工艺，而直到第二次世界大战时才有推动产量扩大的强制作用。这可以解释为什么镁的产量如此之低。它最接近的竞争对手铝已经领先一步。
In the late 1880s, the modern process for producing aluminum, the bear process, was invented. So depending on how you look at it, aluminum was able to start building significant industrial scale 20 to 50 years earlier than magnesium. That means aluminum production and the development of aluminum alloys had a lot more investment dumped into them at an earlier date, which meant larger scale, lower costs, and a better performance at earlier points in time. That created a competitive headwind for magnesium.
在19世纪80年代末，现代铝生产工艺，即巴尔法法，被发明出来。因此，从不同的角度来看，铝能够比镁早20到50年开始建设重要的工业规模。这意味着铝的生产和铝合金的开发在较早的日期上投入了更多的投资，从而实现了更大的规模、更低的成本，并在较早的时期表现更好。这为镁创造了竞争上的困难。
With that in mind, it's clear why the magnesium market is 160th the size of the aluminum market. Moving along, the small scale of the magnesium market means it's much more expensive than it should be, and also means there's not much depth to the market, which in turn means supply and price and stability.
考虑到这一点，很明显为什么镁市场只有铝市场的1/160大小。而镁市场规模小的原因导致其价格比本应该的要高，同时也意味着市场深度不足，从而影响了供应、价格和稳定性。
That makes magnesium a hard sell because it's cheaper and less risky for companies to just use aluminum.
这就使得镁变得难以销售，因为对公司而言，使用铝更便宜且风险较小。
However, I expect that to change as both the cost and benefit sides of the equation improve for magnesium. As I pointed out earlier in the video, the benefit side of the equation is improving as magnesium's drawbacks have been and are being addressed through chemistry and engineering. That means independent of any other variables that a man for magnesium will be increasing because it will be increasingly viable for more use cases.
然而，我预计随着镁的成本和收益方面的改进，情况将会发生变化。正如我在视频中之前指出的，随着化学和工程技术的不断进步，镁的缺点正在得到解决。这意味着无论其他变量如何，对镁的需求将会增加，因为它将在更多的用途中变得越来越可行。
While we're on the topic of demand, in addition to the chemistry and engineering improvements, there's another tailwind for magnesium that'll mean increasing demand for the metal as the decade progresses. Electric Vehicles
在我们谈论需求的话题上，除了化学和工程方面的改进外，镁还面临着另一个有利因素，这将意味着随着这个十年的进展，镁的需求将越来越大。电动车是其中之一。
Using some very rough back of the napkin math for every 2.2 kilograms of weight that can be removed from an electric vehicle, about 1.4680 sized battery cell plus the packaging material around that battery cell can be removed from the vehicle. Each of those cells probably costs about $10 worth packaging, and that's just for the battery.
根据简单粗略的计算，对于每减少2.2公斤的电动汽车重量，大约可以从车辆中移除1个尺寸为1.4680的电池以及包装材料。每个电池的包装大约价值10美元，而这仅仅是针对电池而言的。
The lighter battery pack would in turn also save money in the suspension, motor and inverter power, brakes, and the structural reinforcement needed to carry the battery weight. That means even with a slight cost premium at the material level, magnesium can reduce the total vehicle cost.
较轻的电池组件反过来也能节省悬挂、电机、逆变器电源、刹车以及为承载电池重量而需要的结构加固方面的费用。这意味着即使在材料层面上稍有成本溢价，镁也能降低整车成本。
So even if there were no advancements in magnesium alloys or manufacturing processes for the rest of the decade, we're still going to see the demand for magnesium increase because the economics of EVs are creating a forcing function for lighter materials, even if those materials are more expensive.
即使在未来的十年中镁合金或制造工艺没有任何突破，由于电动汽车的经济效益正在推动对更轻材料的需求增加，我们仍然会看到镁的需求增加，即使这些材料更昂贵。
That increased demand will drive investment, which will drive innovation, development, and scaling, which in turn will increase supply, which brings us to the cost side of the cost benefit equation. We're already seeing companies poised to tackle the supply, price, and price stability challenge from companies like Magrathia.
这种增长需求将推动投资，进而推动创新、发展和规模化，从而增加供应，这也带来了成本效益方程的成本一面。我们已经看到一些公司准备应对供应、价格和价格稳定方面的挑战，比如Magrathia公司。
Not only that, Magrathia in particular is working on a process that'll produce magnesium with an unparalleled environmental profile compared to any other structural metal. That leads us to the final challenge with magnesium.
不仅如此，特别是Magrathia正在研究一种工艺，将生产出环境性能无与伦比的镁，相比其他结构金属。这也给镁材料带来了最终的挑战。
In terms of production, in the past few decades, it's had a poor environmental profile. That's because magnesium has mostly been produced in China since the 1990s using environmentally disruptive processes that are primarily fed by coal power.
在生产方面，在过去几十年中，镁材料的环境负面影响很大。这是因为自1990年以来，中国主要采用以煤炭能源为主导的环境破坏性生产工艺来生产镁材料。
Magrathia is working on a process to extract magnesium from seawater. If that sounds far-fetched, first, bear in mind that seawater contains about 1 pound of magnesium per 142 gallons, or 1.85 kilograms per 1 cubic meter.
Magrathia正在研究一种从海水中提取镁的过程。如果听起来有些难以置信，先要记住海水中含有大约每142加仑（约合1立方米）含有1磅（约合0.45千克）的镁。
Second, as I showed on screen earlier, Dow Chemical started extracting magnesium from seawater in the 30s and 40s, and they continued to do that profitably until the 1990s when China entered the market. That is, we're not talking science fiction here, but rather resurrecting and improving an old technology that wasn't just profitable for Dow, but also Norse hydro.
其次，正如我之前在屏幕上展示的，陶氏化学公司在30年代和40年代开始从海水中提取镁，并一直到1990年代在市场上取得了盈利，直到中国进入市场为止。也就是说，我们这里讨论的不是科幻，而是在复兴和改进一项老技术，这项技术不仅对陶氏公司有盈利效果，也对北欧水电有盈利效果。
What this means is that even if the metal that Magrathia produces is a similar cost to the rest of the magnesium on the market, it'll still be much more desirable than the magnesium produced in China because one of the primary metrics for EV makers is lifetime CO2 emissions.
这句话的意思是，即使麦格雷西亚生产的金属成本与市场上其他镁材料相近，它仍然比中国生产的镁材料更加有吸引力，因为对于电动汽车制造商来说，一项主要指标是寿命期间的二氧化碳排放量。
But if Magrathia can not only reach cost parity with conventionally produced magnesium, but produce it more cheaply, which is their goal, they could see huge demand and they quite literally have an ocean of material to tap into for effectively unlimited scaling.
但是，如果Magrathia不仅能够达到与传统生产的镁的成本平衡，而且能够更便宜地生产，这正是他们的目标，他们可能会面临巨大的需求，而且他们实际上有一片无限扩展的材料海洋可以利用。
In summary, in the past, there have been legitimate challenges that stood in the way of magnesium becoming a material that's embraced by the automotive industry, and many other industries for that matter. The flammability of magnesium is, or was a challenge, but the attention it still receives is disproportionate.
总的来说，过去存在一些合理的挑战阻碍了镁在汽车工业和其他许多行业中被接受为材料。镁的可燃性是一个挑战或曾经是一个挑战，但是它仍然受到的关注是不成比例的。
Aluminum and especially its alloys are less flammable than most materials in a vehicle, particularly fuel and batteries, and there are even aircraft grade alloys that don't ignite. Corrosion was already solved for many use cases, but now there's stainless magnesium for extreme use cases.
铝，尤其是其合金，比车辆中的大多数材料更不易燃，特别是燃料和电池，甚至还有一些航空级合金不会起火。对于许多使用情况而言，腐蚀问题已经得到解决，但现在有了不锈钢镁合金，可以用于极端情况下。
As for size limits, with Idra's new gigaplast machines, the industry is moving towards large castings that can be produced at a high rate, but should also be high quality, meaning low porosity cast parts that are stronger and behave more like forged parts.
就尺寸限制而言，随着Idra的新一代巨型塑胶注射成型设备的出现，该行业正在朝着能够高效生产大件铸件的方向发展，但同时也需要保证高质量，即低孔隙度、更加坚固且更像锻造件的铸造零件。
Availability and cost are being tackled by magrithia, which is tapping into an ocean of supply while at the same time producing magnesium that unlike the magnesium produced in China will be inherently carbon neutral.
可用性和成本是被马格里西亚所解决的问题，马格里西亚正在利用丰富的资源，同时生产的镁与中国生产的镁不同，将天然地做到碳中和。
With that in mind, my view is that we're going to see an S-curve over the next 5 to 10 years, where magnesium starts to displace aluminum as the dominant structural metal for lightweighting and simplifying vehicles and other mass-sensitive applications.
考虑到这一点，我的观点是，在接下来的5到10年内，我们将会看到一个S型曲线，镁将取代铝成为主导的轻量化和简化车辆以及其他对重量敏感的应用领域的结构金属。
In the next video of the Magnesium series, I'll walk you through Idra's plans for Thixomolded Magnesium, and after that, we'll look at Magrithia's plans to resurrect the extraction of magnesium from seawater.
在镁系列的下一个视频中，我将向您介绍Idra公司对Thixomolded镁的计划，并在此之后，我们将研究Magrithia公司在从海水中提取镁方面的复活计划。
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如果你喜欢这个视频，请考虑通过描述中的链接支持本频道。同时，也请考虑在X上关注我。我经常在X上作为一个测试平台分享我的想法，而且X的订阅者（类似于我的Patreon支持者）通常可以提前一周观看我的视频。
On that note, a special thanks to my YouTube members, X subscribers, and all the patrons listed in the credits. I appreciate all of your support, and thanks for tuning in.
在这个基础上，特别感谢我的YouTube会员、X位订阅者和所有在片尾名单中列出的赞助者。我非常感激你们的支持，谢谢你们的收看。