Magnesium Machining Akron, OH

Karl Gillihan

🪶 MAGNESIUM

Magnesium Casting and Machining for Akron, OH Lightweight Components

Magnesium is the lightest structural metal in common industrial use, roughly 35 percent lighter than aluminum and about a quarter the density of steel, which is exactly why it keeps surfacing in Akron's weight-conscious automotive and equipment work. The city that perfected rubber and polymer engineering now houses suppliers chasing the same goal in metal: stiffness and strength at the lowest possible mass. This page walks through the AZ31B, AZ91D, and WE43 grades buyers ask for most, how magnesium is cast and machined locally, and the handling realities that separate shops who run it routinely from those who don't.

ISO 9001AS9100ISO 14001

Akron grew up as the rubber capital of the world, and the automotive relationships forged in that era never left. The descendants of that supply network now build brackets, instrument-panel beams, transmission and clutch housings, steering components, and seat frames for vehicle programs, and magnesium is the material engineers reach for when an aluminum part is still too heavy. A die-cast magnesium bracket can shave 30 to 50 percent of the mass off an equivalent aluminum part while holding adequate stiffness, which is meaningful when a vehicle program is fighting for fuel economy or EV range. The heavy-equipment and construction-machinery shops around Akron and the broader Northeast Ohio corridor use magnesium more selectively, typically for housings, covers, and instrument enclosures where reducing operator-station weight or hand-tool fatigue is the goal. Aerospace and defense work in the region, while smaller, pulls magnesium into gearbox housings and structural castings where the strength-to-weight ratio justifies the cost and the handling discipline. What ties these uses together is intent. Magnesium is never the default; it is a deliberate choice made when the weight target cannot be met any other way. Buyers in Akron who specify it usually arrive with a clear mass budget, and the conversation is about which grade and which process hit that target without giving up too much on strength, corrosion resistance, or cost.

AZ31B, AZ91D, and WE43: Matching Grade to Duty

AZ31B is the wrought workhorse, a magnesium-aluminum-zinc alloy supplied as sheet, plate, and extrusion. It machines and forms well, takes welding reasonably, and is the grade buyers want for fabricated brackets, panels, and parts cut from stock rather than cast. With roughly 3 percent aluminum and 1 percent zinc, it offers a good balance of strength and ductility and is the easiest of the three to source as bar or plate for machined prototypes and low volumes. AZ91D is the die-casting grade, the most widely used magnesium alloy in the automotive world. Its higher aluminum content, around 9 percent, gives it excellent castability and good strength, and the high-purity 'D' chemistry tightly controls iron, nickel, and copper to keep corrosion resistance respectable for a magnesium alloy. When an Akron supplier is producing housings, covers, or brackets in volume, AZ91D die castings are usually what's running. It is the right call for net-shape, high-throughput parts where the geometry comes straight from the tool. WE43 is the high-performance outlier, a magnesium alloy with yttrium and rare-earth additions that holds strength at elevated temperatures up to roughly 250 degrees Celsius and resists creep far better than AZ-series alloys. It costs substantially more and is specified for aerospace gearbox housings, defense components, and increasingly for bioresorbable medical applications. If a part sees sustained heat or demands the best available magnesium strength, WE43 is the grade, but buyers should expect longer lead times and a smaller pool of qualified shops.

Sourcing Magnesium Locally Without Surprises

The first thing to settle is process: is the part cast or machined from wrought stock? Volume drives this. A handful of prototype brackets are best machined from AZ31B plate, which any capable Akron machine shop with magnesium-safe practices can deliver quickly. A production housing in the thousands belongs in AZ91D die casting, which means engaging a caster, building or amending tooling, and accepting the upfront cost in exchange for low piece price and net-shape geometry. Second, nail down the finish and corrosion protection before the quote, not after. Magnesium's corrosion behavior is its real-world weak point, and the coating choice affects cost, lead time, and dimensional allowances. Conversion coat, anodize, and paint systems each carry different masking and thickness considerations, and dissimilar-metal isolation may add fasteners, washers, or sealants to the bill of materials. Third, verify the shop's magnesium experience directly. Ask how they handle and store chips, what fire suppression they keep at the machines, and whether they have a track record with the specific grade. ISO 9001 covers the quality system, and AS9100 matters if the part is aerospace, but neither certificate guarantees magnesium-specific competence. The shops worth working with in Akron will answer the handling questions without hesitation, because for them it is daily routine.

Machining and the Fire Question

Magnesium is a genuine pleasure to machine in terms of cutting performance. It has excellent machinability, the best of any structural metal, cutting fast with low power draw and producing clean surfaces with long tool life. Shops can run high spindle speeds and aggressive feeds, and the chips break cleanly. For a machine shop, magnesium removes metal faster than aluminum and far faster than steel or titanium. The catch, and it is the defining one, is fire risk. Fine magnesium chips, dust, and turnings are flammable and, once ignited, burn at extreme temperature and cannot be extinguished with water, which violently accelerates the reaction. Shops that run magnesium routinely use sharp tooling and proper feeds to keep chips coarse rather than fine, segregate and store turnings in covered steel containers, keep Class D dry-powder extinguishers on hand, and never let magnesium swarf mingle with other metal fines. This is not exotic, but it is a discipline, and it is the single most important thing to confirm when sourcing magnesium in Akron. A shop that machines aluminum all day is not automatically equipped to machine magnesium safely. The other practical consideration is corrosion. Bare magnesium corrodes readily, especially galvanically when coupled to steel or aluminum fasteners. Akron suppliers handle this with chromate or chrome-free conversion coatings, anodizing, powder coat, or e-coat, and with isolating hardware at dissimilar-metal joints. Buyers should specify the finish and the service environment up front, because an unprotected magnesium part in a wet or salty automotive underbody application will not last.

Frequently Asked Questions

You choose magnesium when weight is the controlling requirement and aluminum cannot get you there. Magnesium is about 35 percent less dense than aluminum and roughly a quarter the density of steel, so a magnesium part can be substantially lighter than an aluminum equivalent while maintaining adequate stiffness and strength for many applications. In Akron's automotive and heavy-equipment work, that weight savings translates directly into fuel economy, EV range, lower operator fatigue on hand tools, and reduced inertia in moving assemblies. The higher material cost and the extra corrosion-protection steps are real, but they are justified when the mass target simply cannot be met another way, which is why magnesium shows up in brackets, housings, instrument-panel beams, and structural castings rather than as a general-purpose substitute. It is also exceptionally machinable, cutting faster than aluminum with less tool wear, which offsets some cost on machined parts. The decision is almost always driven by a specific weight budget. If a part has room to spare on mass, aluminum is usually the more economical and lower-maintenance choice. If the design is fighting for every gram, magnesium becomes the rational answer, and Akron's supply base has the casting and machining capability to deliver it.

Yes, magnesium is machined safely every day, but only by shops that follow magnesium-specific handling discipline, which is why verifying that experience is essential when sourcing in Akron. The risk comes from fine chips, dust, and turnings, which are flammable and, once ignited, burn at extreme temperatures that water makes worse rather than better. Shops that run magnesium routinely control this several ways. They use sharp tooling and correct speeds and feeds to produce coarse chips rather than fine powder, since coarse chips are far harder to ignite. They collect and store turnings in covered steel containers, kept separate from other metal fines and away from heat sources. They keep Class D dry-powder extinguishers, not water or standard ABC units, at the machines. And they keep work areas clean so dust does not accumulate. A shop that machines aluminum competently is not automatically equipped for magnesium, because the fire-safety practices are different and specific. When you source magnesium parts, ask the supplier directly how they handle and store chips and what fire suppression they keep on hand. A qualified Akron shop will answer immediately and concretely, because for them it is established routine, not an afterthought.

For an automotive housing produced in volume, AZ91D is almost always the right grade, because it is the workhorse magnesium die-casting alloy and the most widely used in the automotive industry. Its aluminum content of around 9 percent gives it excellent castability, meaning the molten alloy fills complex thin-walled housing geometries cleanly and produces good net-shape parts straight from the tool. It also delivers good mechanical strength for the application. Just as important, the 'D' designation indicates a high-purity chemistry that tightly limits iron, nickel, and copper, the contaminants that destroy magnesium's corrosion resistance, so AZ91D holds up far better in service than older or less controlled magnesium alloys. For a housing where you want low piece price at volume, net-shape geometry that minimizes machining, and acceptable corrosion behavior with a proper coating, AZ91D die casting is the standard answer. You would only move away from it if the housing sees sustained elevated temperatures, in which case WE43 with its rare-earth additions holds strength and resists creep at temperatures where AZ91D weakens, though at considerably higher cost. For machined prototypes before you commit to casting tooling, AZ31B wrought stock lets you produce parts quickly to validate the design. Discuss volume, geometry, and service temperature with your Akron caster to confirm the fit.

Protecting magnesium from corrosion is a required design step, not an option, because bare magnesium corrodes readily and is especially vulnerable to galvanic corrosion when it contacts dissimilar metals like steel or aluminum fasteners. Akron suppliers handle protection with a layered approach. The base layer is usually a conversion coating, either traditional chromate or modern chrome-free chemistry, which passivates the surface and provides a foundation for subsequent coatings. On top of that, parts commonly receive powder coat, e-coat, or paint systems for environmental sealing and appearance, and some applications use anodizing for a harder, more durable surface. Equally important is managing dissimilar-metal contact at joints. Where a magnesium part bolts to steel or aluminum, the design should isolate the interface using non-conductive washers, sealants, or coated fasteners to break the galvanic couple that would otherwise accelerate corrosion at the contact point. The right protection scheme depends entirely on the service environment, so buyers should specify it up front. A magnesium part in a dry, indoor enclosure needs far less protection than one in an automotive underbody exposed to road salt and moisture. Tell your supplier the operating environment, expected service life, and any dissimilar-metal interfaces, and they can specify a coating and isolation strategy that keeps the part durable. Getting this defined before the quote also matters because coatings affect cost, lead time, and dimensional allowances.

Yes, magnesium prototypes are one of the faster things to get machined in the Akron area, provided you go to a shop set up to handle the material safely. For prototypes and low-volume parts, the practical route is to machine from AZ31B wrought stock, which is the most readily available magnesium grade in plate, bar, and extrusion form. Magnesium has the best machinability of any structural metal, cutting fast with low cutting forces, long tool life, and clean surface finishes, so once a shop has the material in hand, the actual machining is quick and efficient, often faster than the equivalent aluminum part. That makes magnesium attractive for validating a lightweight design before committing to expensive die-casting tooling. The two things that govern turnaround are material availability and the shop's magnesium qualification. AZ31B stock is sourceable but not as instantly on-the-shelf as common aluminum alloys, so allow for a short procurement window if the shop does not stock it. More importantly, confirm the shop runs magnesium with proper fire-safety handling, because not every capable machine shop does. Akron's deep machining base, built around its automotive and equipment supply network, includes shops with magnesium experience. Once you have identified one, prototype brackets, housings, and panels in AZ31B can turn around quickly, letting you iterate on a weight-critical design without the lead time of casting.

Last updated: July 2026

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