Elektron is the registered

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

of a wide range of

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...

s 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 Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

(< 9.5%),

yttrium Yttrium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanides and has often been classified as a "rare-earth element". Yttrium is almost a ...

(5.25%),

neodymium Neodymium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is the fourth member of the lanthanide series and is considered to be one of the rare-earth element, rare-earth metals. It is a hard (physics), hard, sli ...

(2.7%),

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

(2.5%), gadolinium (1.3%),

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

(0.9%), zirconium (0.6%),

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

(0.5%) and other rare-earth metals. Varying amounts of alloying elements (up to 9.5%) added to the magnesium result in changes to mechanical properties such as increased

tensile strength Ultimate tensile strength (also called UTS, tensile strength, TS, ultimate strength or F_\text in notation) is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking. In brittle materials, the ultimate ...

, creep resistance, thermal stability or

corrosion Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engine ...

resistance. Elektron is unusually light and has a

specific gravity Relative density, also called specific gravity, is a dimensionless quantity defined as the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for solids and liquids is nea ...

of about 1.8 compared with the 2.8 of aluminium alloy, or the 7.9 of steel. Magnesium's relatively low

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...

makes its alloy variants suitable for use in

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

and

aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

applications.

History

Elektron or ''Elektronmetall'' was first developed in 1908 by Gustav Pistor and Wilhelm Moschel at the Bitterfeld works of Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron (CFGE or CFG), the headquarters of which was in Griesheim am Main,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The composition of the initial Elektron alloy was approximately Mg 90%, Al 9%, other 1%. At its pavilion at the International Aviation Fair (Internationale Luftschiffahrt-Ausstellung, ILA) in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

in 1909, CFG exhibited an Adler 75HP engine with a cast magnesium alloy crankcase. Also exhibiting at the 1909 Frankfurt Air Exhibition was August Euler (1868–1957) – owner of German pilot's licence No. 1 – who manufactured Voisin biplanes under licence in Griesheim am Main. His Voisins with Adler 50 hp engines flew in October 1909. CFG joined the newly created

IG Farben I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German Chemical industry, chemical and Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was formed on December 2, 1925 from a merger of six chemical co ...

as an associate company in 1916. During the Allied Occupation after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, a Major Charles J. P. Ball, DSO, MC, of the Royal Horse Artillery was stationed in Germany. He later joined F. A. Hughes and Co. Ltd., which began manufacturing elektron in the UK under licence from IG Farben from around 1923. CFG merged fully with the IG Farben conglomerate in 1925 along with Versuchsbau Hellmuth Hirth (a copper alloy manufacturer), to form another company, Elektronmetall Bad Cannstatt

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. In 1935, IG Farben, ICI and F. A. Hughes and Co. (22% shares) founded Magnesium Elektron Ltd. of Clifton, Greater Manchester. The company is still manufacturing alloys in 2017.

Uses

Elektron has been used in

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

airships, aircraft, and motor racing applications. Incendiary bombs using elektron were developed towards the end of the First World War by both Germany (the B-1E ''Elektronbrandbombe'' or ''Stabbrandbombe'') and the UK. Although neither side used this type of bomb operationally during the conflict, Erich Ludendorff mentions in his memoirs a plan to bomb Paris with a new type of incendiary bomb with the aim of overwhelming the city's fire services; this planned raid was also reported in ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'' on 21 December 1918. The lightness of elektron meant that a large aeroplane like one of the '' Riesenflugzeug'' heavy bombers could carry hundreds of bomblets. British and German incendiary bombs used extensively during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

weighed about 1 kg and consisted of an outer casing made of elektron alloy, which was filled with thermite pellets and fitted with a fuse. The fuse ignited the thermite, which in turn ignited the magnesium casing; it burned for about 15 minutes. Trying to douse the fire with water only intensified the reaction. It could not be extinguished and burned at such a high temperature that it could penetrate armour plate. In 1924, magnesium alloys (AZ; 2,5–3,0% Al; 3,0–4,0% Zn) were used in automobile pistons diecast by Elektronmetall Bad Cannstatt, another IG Farben company formed out of Versuchsbau Hellmuth Hirth. The main engine bearers of the

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the Nazi Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt#History, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the ...

and the

Junkers Ju 87 The Junkers Ju 87, popularly known as the "Stuka", is a German dive bomber and ground-attack aircraft. Designed by Hermann Pohlmann, it first flew in 1935. The Ju 87 made its combat debut in 1937 with the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion during the ...

were made from forged elektron. The air-cooled

BMW 801 The BMW 801 was a powerful Nazi Germany, German Air-cooled engine, air-cooled 14-cylinder-radial engine, radial aircraft engine built by BMW and used in a number of German Luftwaffe aircraft of World War II. Production versions of the Radial e ...

radial aero engine that powered the

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' (Shrike) is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, the ...

had a radiator fan made of magnesium alloy, very probably elektron. An advertisement in the German trade paper ''Flugsport'' in 1939 claimed that the record-breaking Arado Ar 79 aircraft contained 25% by weight of elektron, mostly in the Hirth HM 504 A2 4-cylinder inline engine whose crankcase was made of Elektron. The connectors for the fuel pipes in the engine compartment of Tiger II tanks were originally made of elektron, but they distorted when clamped and were replaced with steel ones. Siemens-Halske used elektron casings for their ''

Hellschreiber The Hellschreiber, Feldhellschreiber or Typenbildfeldfernschreiber (also Hell-Schreiber named after its inventor Rudolf Hell) is a fax, facsimile-based teleprinter invented by Rudolf Hell. Compared to contemporary teleprinters that were based ...

'' military teleprinter used during WW2. The prototype 4-seater 1948 Planet Satellite had a monocoque fuselage of elektron, a solid elektron keel and wings skinned in elektron, but the keel suffered from stress failures and never reached production.{{cite web , last=Pearce , first=William , title=Planet Satellite Light Aircraft , date=June 2021 , website=Old Machine Press , url=https://oldmachinepress.com/2021/06/ , access-date=1 January 2023 The bodywork of certain racing cars utilized elektron, including the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR that infamously crashed in the 1955 Le Mans race, highlighting its flammability.Spurring, Quentin (2011). ''Le Mans 1949-59''. Sherborne, Dorset: Evro Publishing {{ISBN, 9781844255375, p. 217.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

Website of Magnesium Elektron Ltd.
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515070904/http://www.magnesium-elektron.com/ , date=15 May 2021

a 1952 ''Flight'' advertisement for Magnesium Elektron's new alloy * ASTM International standards ?? {{DEFAULTSORT:Elektron (Alloy) Magnesium alloys Aluminium–magnesium alloys

History

Uses

See also

References

External links