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Light-weight Metallic Materials Group
Members
Hidetoshi Somekawa
Group Leader, Light-weight Metallic Materials Group, Materials Manufacturing Field, Research Center for Structural Materials
Keyword : light-weight metals, structural materials, mechanical properties, electrochemical properties 
Yukiko Ogawa
Senior Researcher, Light-weight Metallic Materials Group, Materials Manufacturing Field, Research Center for Structural Materials
Keyword : magnesium alloy, lightweight alloys
About us
Since it is strongly demanded to decrease in the emission of carbon dioxide according to not only saving-energy and -resource but also Kyoto Protocol, we are necessary to reduce the total weight and/or structural parts of air-plane, railway and automotive. Under such a global issue, we have focused on Mg and Al, which have much lower density among the common metallic materials. We have tried to develop newly light-weight metallic materials having high strength and toughness properties as well as having unique functional properties via multi-scaled microstructural control.
High strength and toughness based on understanding plastic deformation of Mg
It is well known that deformation twins form during plastic deformation at room-temperature, due to its crystal structure. However, the interface between twin boundaries and matrix becomes the crack propagation route; thus, this microstructural factor is closely related to brittle facture. In other word, controlling deformation twins is the key point to change from brittle to ductile metallic materials. We have been successfully developed Mg alloys which have high toughness properties without any decrease in high strength properties, via controlling morphology in precipitation particles in atomistic level, grain boundary and grain size in micro-levels, and texture (basal plane distribution) in macro-levels.