During June 11 to 12, Canada-China-USA Collaborative R&D Project “MFERD” 2012 Annual Working Meeting held at Xingguo Hotel in Shanghai. Li Baoshan, director of high-tech material Division of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and Shi Wenfang, director of China Magnesium Industry Productivity Promotion Center, and William Joost, Materials technical director of the U.S. Department of Energy, and Mark Kozdras, responsible person for Automotive Materials project of Natural Resources Canada, attended the meeting and had speech. More than 70 representatives of universities, government agencies and business from china, Canada and USA attended the meeting. Prof. Peng Jian of Chongqing University, and Cao Jianyong, president of Chongqing Boao Mg-Al Manufacturing Co. Ltd., representing National Engineering Research Center for Magnesium Alloys, attended the meeting.

MFERD Project was proposed by U.S. Department of Energy, Natural Resources Canada and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. The project was designed to make magnesium alloys used in automotive body structure system instead of single component, to improve the car’s fuel economy and driving handling. The project was formally started in 2006. The first annual report was held in Hangzhou in 2008. The second and third annual work conferences were respectively held in Lakeside Niagara, Canada, in 2009, and the University of Michigan in the United States in 2010. The daily work of project exchanged through telephone conference and network video. The project progressed smoothly in the past few years, has entered the second stage of ""Demo"" demonstration structure manufacturing.

During the meeting, Daolun Chen of the Canada Ryerson University, the member of the Project Technical Committee (PTC), Kumar Sadayappan of Natural Resources Canada, Eric Nyberg of the U.S. Department of Energy, and Shi Wenfang of China Magnesium Industry Productivity Promotion Center respectively introduced the progress of the project. According to the project task, participants were divided into “corrosion and connection”, “crashworthiness, fatigue, NVH” and “casting, extrusion, sheet, ICME” three groups to discuss. For the importance of new alloy materials and extrusion forming in demonstration structure manufacturing, Prof. Peng Jian of Chongqing University, representative of unit responsible for the subject, introduced the progress of their work, including development of new magnesium alloys with high plastic deformation and alloys with low-cost and high-strength for demonstration structure manufacturing, and the research of preparation and extrusion process of ingot with high quality. Prof. Peng Jian also attended in the work coordination meeting of the Project Technical Committee (PTC) before the end of the annual meeting.