Materials supply

Peter C. Dent

Electron Energy Corporation, USA

Rare earth future

What are the challenges, choices and solutions for the development and production of rare earth permanent magnets?

are earths have garnered much attention recently as the public becomes aware of the supply-chain issues stemming from Chinas dominance of the production of these 17 elements. As we know, the rare earths are not rare and have an abundance in the earths crust comparable to tin and antimony (Figure 1). Over 300 potential deposits around the world are being discussed for potential commercialisation. Just because a shovel full of dirt in many parts of the world indicates rare earths are present, however, does not necessarily mean that economic exploitation and commercial production can occur. Today over 95 percent of rare earth oxides and nearly 100 percent of the worlds rare earth metals come from China. Data from 2010 indicates that 129,000 tonnes of rare earth elements were produced worldwide, with a small non-Chinese contribution from India, Russia and the USA. Over the past decade Chinas dominance in this market has led to a near monopoly in raw materials and has resulted in a steep decline in US and nonChinese rare earth and magnet production capabilities. Fortunately help is on the way to reduce this huge reliance on China for production of rare earth elements. The three nearest-term non-Chinese rare earth projects belong to Lynas, Molycorp and Great Western Minerals Group. Lynas Corporations Mount Weld project in Western Australia with a concentration plant on site and a separation facility under construction in Malaysia will come online in the third quarter of 2011. Lynas is expected to produce 11,000 tonnes a year of rare earth oxide during Phase I of the project, with an additional 11,000 tonnes during Phase II in 2012. Molycorp plans that its Mountain Pass project will come online in late 2012 with stated production goals of an annual 20,000 tonnes of

Figure 1: Abundance (atom fraction) of the chemical elements in the earths upper continental crust as a function of atomic number. Many of the elements are classified into (partially overlapping) categories: (1) rock-forming elements (major elements in green field and minor elements in light green field); (2) rare earth elements (lanthanides, La-Lu plus Y, in blue); (3) major industrial metals (global production >~3x107kg/year, in bold); (4) precious metals (italic); and (5) the nine rarest metals the six platinum group elements plus Au, Re and Te (a metalloid)

rare earth oxide. Both have indicated plans to double these intended outputs thereafter. Great Western Minerals Group of Canada plans to commence mining at its Steenkampskraal, South Africa mine by January of 2013. Although it will only produce 2,700 tonnes a year, it will provide very much needed heavy rare earths, such as Dysprosium, which is almost nonexistent at Mount Weld and Mountain Pass and is in very limited availability from China. So with all this fear and uncertainty surrounding rare earths, why dont we just avoid their use in new design applications? First, although substantial challenges exist over the next couple of years, new mining operations outside China are being aggressively developed and governments and investors worldwide are working to fill in nonChinese supply-chain gaps that can be sustainable over the long term. Second, Mother Nature has blessed these elements of the periodic

56

TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2011

Materials supply

shown in Figure 2. One can see the trend over time in the development of higher energy product magnets, which has been transferred into commercial acceptance as well. Around the year 2000 rare earth magnets eclipsed non-rare earth magnets in dollar volume of sales worldwide even though they can be five to 20 times more expensive per kilogram than non-rare earth alternatives. The primary reason for this shift is due to higher magnetic flux per unit mass. This not only reduces magnet sizes but also reduces system costs by making surrounding components smaller. This helps to miniaturize the devices and therefore expand uses and broaden market penetration. table with unique characteristics that can produce much higher magnetic fields than anything else discovered so far. Figure 2 (above): Performance positioning Figure 3 (below): Partial list of samarium-cobalt magnet specifications

Samarium cobalt magnets

Samarium Cobalt (SmCo) magnets offer excellent performance at high temperatures. EEC produces the widest array of magnetic properties attainable for SmCo with the broadest operating temperature range including ultra-high temperature SmCoUHT, which can operate continuously up to 550C. The company produces SmCo permanent magnets with energy products in excess of 30 megagauss-oersted (MGOe) and applicationspecific blends to provide unique, customised properties for optimised magnetic circuit designs. EEC offers temperature compensated (TC) speciality magnet materials with a very low reversible temperature coefficient of Br, which can reduce the change in residual induction to a small fraction of conventional SmCo or other magnet materials. SmCo magnets usually do not need coatings to protect them from environmentinduced corrosion, which allows more accurate part tolerances and simplifies use.

Magnet technology overview

Humans have marvelled at magnetisms mysterious forces from the time our cave-dwelling forefathers discovered special rocks that were presumably magnetised when hit by lighting. Permanent magnets of that time were based on iron. Through the 1960s most permanent magnets were based on iron in combination with other transition metals such as cobalt and nickel. To this day, based on tonnage, the dominant magnet material by a very wide margin is ferrite, which is essentially a form of iron oxide. Non-rare earth magnets have been available for decades in the form of ferrites and aluminium nickel cobalt (alnico). In the 1960s researchers at Wright Patterson Air Force base discovered a new class of magnets based on the rare earth metal samarium and the transition metal cobalt. Rare earth magnets were born. In the 1980s, neodymium iron boron, another rare earth-transition metal magnet, was developed in Japan and the USA. Rare earth magnets owe their superior properties high induction and coercive force to the unique combination of elements with unfilled d and f orbitals in other words transition metals and rare earths. The combination of these elements and others allows the electrons in the alloy structure to align with one another anisotropically and obtain much higher residual induction, with a much higher resistance to being demagnetised or intrinsic coercivity than previous material systems. A chart showing the relative strengths as measured by maximum energy product and maximum continuous operating temperature is

TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2011

57

Materials supply
Future permanent magnetic materials for motors and generators
For at least the next 10 years rare earth magnets will continue to be the material of choice for hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) internal permanent magnet (IPM) motor and generator designs as well as for higher speed, more compact brushless DC (BLDC) motor applications. Synchronous electrical machines also serve an important role in motor and generator applications for a broad array of applications including HEVs where challenges occur in generating the low-speed torques required, especially at lower ambient temperatures. EEC is developing magnet technologies that will offer new classes of rare earth permanent magnets with high electrical resistivity. Fully dense sintered rare earth magnets are brittle intermetallics that have inherently low electrical resistivity. EECs novel approach comprises combining hard magnetic and ceramic phases, which will disrupt or reduce the flow of electrons through the bulk magnet material. This technology includes innovative processes, materials structures and compositions for the synthesis of higher electrical resistivity permanent magnets that can reduce eddy current losses in motors and generators. If successfully developed commercially, these magnets with higher electrical resistivity will enhance electrical efficiency in higher speed motor and generator applications and help enable lower temperature operation, increase power density, increase pole counts, reduce cost and mitigate use of heavy rare earth elements. The proposed technology should lead to rare earth permanent magnets with electrical resistivity around 1,000 percent greater than current state-of-the-art rare earth magnets while offering magnetic properties similar to current offerings.

Neodymium-iron-boron magnets
Neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) is the highest energy product permanent magnet material that is available commercially with (BH) max beyond 52MGOe. When operating at lower temperatures, NdFeB magnets are often good choices for applications up to about 150C. These magnets have limited lower temperature operation since they begin to experience reversible losses when temperatures go below 110K. NdFeB magnets typically require a protective coating in order to prevent environmental corrosion. The higher coercivity NdFeB grades use considerable percentages of dysprosium in lieu of some of the neodymium. Dysprosium is in very short supply and has seen prices exceed US$800/kg, which has affected NdFeB magnet prices substantially in recent months. In such applications Samarium cobalt could be a viable alternative design choice.

Figure 4 (above): FEA results of bias and control flux Figure 5 (below): Electron Energy Corporations offices and manufacturing facility

For much higher energy product magnets

Also shown in Figure 2 is a green bubble, representing the potential performance of the next generation of magnet materials currently being

About the company

Electron Energy Corporation (EEC) was founded in 1970 with a non-exclusive license of an Air Force Research Lab patent. It pioneered the development and commercialisation of rare earth permanent magnets and was among the first companies in the world to sell rare earth magnets based on samarium cobalt (SmCo). EEC is an established strong, international niche player and one of the most innovative companies in the industry, providing the worlds highest performance, broadest temperature range and the most extensive offerings of samarium cobalt magnets. The company says it adds value not only by producing custom permanent magnets, but also by designing magnetic circuits and building magnet assemblies. EEC is a fully integrated manufacturer of rare earth magnets and rare earth magnet assemblies. It occupies 3,900m2 of modern office and manufacturing space in its single operations and office facility. EEC has systems in place to manufacture products in compliance with domestic source preferences for speciality metals sources for US DOD weapons systems. It is also registered by the US Department of State to export under the ITAR. The company practices continuous improvement, 5S and lean manufacturing, and is ISO 9001:2000 certified.
58

TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2011

Materials supply
Innovative technologies, including hightemperature magnetic bearing technology, are necessary for the design and development of advanced space vehicles and power systems. A novel high-temperature hybrid radial magnetic bearing capable of operating at 538C was developed by EEC in collaboration with Texas A & M University under a NASA Glenn Research Center SBIR Phase II contract (number NNC06CA04C) and highlights EECs advanced capabilities in SmCo magnet production, assemblies, finite element analysis (FEA) and magnetic circuit design. High temperature permanent magnets are used to carry the majority of the static rotor weight, instead of a magnetic bearing coil or electromagnets, which are used only for control. The permanent magnet bias of the radial magnetic bearing reduces the current required for magnetic bearing operation. This reduces the power loss due to the coil current resistance and increases system efficiency because high-temperature permanent magnets are used to carry the majority of the static load on the bearing. The bearing was designed to produce 2,225N of force at 538C and is driven by a 25,000rpm 5.1kW permanent magnet motor operating in the same environment with 0.45T flux in the 0.1cm air gap. The bias flux density in the air gap is 0.53T at 538C. The total weight is 213N including the stator laminates, magnets, back-iron and rotor laminates. At 538C, the position stiffness is 12,000N/mm and the current stiffness is 182N/A, (Figure 6 and 7). A novel feature of this high temperature magnetic bearing is its homopolar construction, which incorporates state-of-the-art ultra-hightemperature SmCo-UHT permanent magnets developed at EEC. A second feature is its fault tolerance, which provides the desired control forces even with over half of the coils failed. The combined magnetic circuit of the hybrid magnetic bearing was designed via iterative 3D finiteelement based electromagnetic field simulation. Figure 4 shows the FEA solid model. The lamination stacks were made of Hiperco 50. n

developed. These meta-materials are nanocomposite magnets that take hard magnetic particles of NdFeB or SmCo on the nano scale and combine them with soft magnetic materials (iron). When the hard and soft magnetic phases are combined they act as one system. The key physical principle is that there is an exchange coupling between the soft phases and the hard magnetic phase. Nanocomposite magnets take the advantage of the high saturation magnetisation of the soft magnetic phase and benefit from the high intrinsic coercivity of hard magnetic phase. Development of these anisotropic high-energy permanent magnets are focused in the areas of nano particle production and developing approaches that will allow the interaction of the hard and soft phases to consistently achieve high induction and coercivity. In addition consolidation techniques that are employed for rare earth magnets, such as sintering at high temperatures, will not work for these new systems due to adverse grain growth. Lower temperature processes such as die upsetting, hot pressing or others need to be developed for these new materials. Other rare earth-based magnet systems such as samarium iron nitride have been and are still topics of intense investigation. In fact in the past 100 years a wide variety of systems have been thoroughly investigated, so the potential for the discovery of new systems is limited. Although there are some magnetic structures that could theoretically be developed into magnets more powerful than current rare earth types, there are enormous fundamental challenges that would need to be overcome, making this a very risky research endeavour.

Figure 6 (above): Active magnetic hybrid bearing system Figure 7 (below): 538C BLDC motor assembly views

High temperature hybrid radial magnetic bearing system

Magnetic bearing technology is considered to be an enabling technology for new advanced engine designs. Rolling element bearings and squeeze dampers are currently used to support gas turbine engine rotors. These types of bearings are limited in temperature (<260C) and speed and require both air cooling and a lubrication system.

TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2011

59