On October 20th and 21st, School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) of Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), in cooperation with Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of Yulin City (BIIT-Yulin) and People's Government of Fugu County (PG-FG), successfully organized the technical symposium of magnesium smelting in Fugu of Yulin. More than 10 experts and professors from XJTU, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, the West Baode Technology Co. Ltd. and other universities or research institutions were invited to the symposium. Meanwhile, Shaanxi Tianyu Magnesium Group and more than 20 representatives from other 14 enterprises attended the symposium. The attendants also include the leadership of Department of Industry of Shaanxi, BIIT-Yulin, FCPG and other relevant department leaders. The technical symposium focused on the technical problems of magnesium reduction and refining and was co-chaired by Changyou Liu, Deputy Director of BIIT-Yulin and Prof. Zhiwei Shan, Dean of MSE-XJTU.
During the symposium, the participants researched and investigated Shaanxi Tianyu Magnesium Group, Fugu Taida Coal Chemical Co. Ltd. in depth, which are both leading companies in Yulin. Subsequently, in the following meetings, the local officials pointed out that the great advantages we can take in developing magnesium industries are power resources and supporting policies in Yulin. But there still exist some obstacles blocking the development. Firstly, the spent on researches of new products are not enough and production chains cannot extend out of the lag of technological innovation and the lack of professional technical people. Secondly, private enterprises are slow inthe procedure of reformation and upgrading. Many enterprises are haunted by financial difficulties and thus unable to make efforts to implement reformation. Thirdly, many enterprises are mismanaged without the integration of industrialization and information technology. The business representatives in Shaanxi Tianyu, FuguJingfu, FuguTaida and Yulin Tianlong Groups have several practical problems in manufacture, which include the urgent need to develop production process standards and normalized beneficial quality analysis methods, low quality of production originated from unstable quality of magnesium ingot and uncontrollable impurity elements, and waste heat retrieval and waste recycling are not sufficient.
Nowadays, magnesium industries in Shaanxi have taken full rewards of local power resources which need to be transformed and updated immediately. Local governments and enterprises desire to see the sustainable development of magnesium industries with the cooperation of favorable policies, manufacturing technologies and scientific researches. Professor Zhiwei Shan, Director of Center for Magnesium Matrix New Material Engineering and Research of Shaanxi and Dean of MSE-XJTU, strongly suggested that mutual trust and firm cooperation should be built between the governments, enterprises and universities. The government should implement policies to attract talents and take transportation into consideration, when determining the location of deep processing factories to support the further development of the magnesium industries in Yulin. Professor Chonggao Bao from XJTU has complete schemes to control the refinery process and to improve the manufacturing process plus calibration of quality inspection. He suggested that the leading enterprises should take steps to update their production techniques and establish the magnesium alloy extrusion and rolling production line. It was mentioned that a public testing platform should be set up in Yulin. Professor Jianxun Ma from XJTU introduced effective ways of treatments and re-utilization of magnesium slag. Deputy Director Tao Xie from Office for Raw Material in Department of Industry and Information Technology of Shaanxi supposed that enterprises should make stronger contact with Guanzhong, where the processing capabilities of non-ferrous metals have not been fully exhausted. Besides, some specialists and engineers had many discussions on the magnesium matrix composite materials having large continuous electrical inner-heating standing stoves and the applications of advanced ceramic materials in magnesium smelting.
The technical symposium of magnesium smelting proposed some key problems existing in production process, provided clear directions and elaborated advice for development of magnesium industries.
