Machining of Magnesium Alloys:A Review

Magnesium and its alloys are widely used in a number of applications including automotive and aerospace. Because of its biocompatibility, it is also being used in many medical applications including orthopedics. Machining is a commonly used manufacturing process to produce components. Magnesium because of its characteristics like light weight and other mechanical properties is the easiest to machine. But there are several issues related to its machining. There has been considerable research work going on outside India regarding machinability studies of magnesium alloys, but there have been very minimal efforts going on in India. In order to understand the various issues related to machining of magnesium alloys, this review is an honest effort to review the literature available regarding the same and classify them based on areas of relevance in machining and then draw some major conclusions from the review. The authors feel this review will help prospective researchers to get necessary information about machining of magnesium alloys.