Compiled by Walt Benecki, Terry Clagett & Stanley Trout, the 400-page “Permanent Magnets 2010-2020” report is, according to the authors,

“a professionally bound book, designed to be a resource for every sector of the global permanent-magnet industry, including producers, users, fabricators & distributors and industry suppliers. It is a “must have” for anyone seeking to understand today’s dynamics and planning for success in the ever-expanding global permanent-magnet industry.”

Terra Magnetica is one of just a couple of authorized resellers of the Report. To see more details on it, including the Table of Contents and ordering details, please click here.

Stan has been a successful consultant in the magnet industry for the past ten years, under the banner of his Spontaneous Materials consulting business. He previously worked for a number of magnet companies in the USA and even for Molycorp itself in a prior incarnation. Stan is therefore very well-qualified for his new role.

In addition to restarting the production of separated rare earth products from its Mountain Pass mine in California, a critical component of Molycorp’s business strategy is the production of rare-earth-based permanent magnets and magnet alloys. To date there has not been a lot of detail on this aspect of their game plan, beyond proposals to work with an unnamed third party magnet materials manufacturer.

The addition of Stan to the Molycorp team is a smart move on their part, and perhaps today’s announcement is the first in a series that will clarify the approach that the company plans to take in order to execute its strategy.

Congratulations Stan!

Notable among the grants was a $2.25 million grant to GE Global Research, of Niskayuna, NY, for a project titled ‘Transformational Nanostructured Permanent Magnets”.

According to the write up from the DoE, GE will

“develop next-generation permanent magnets that include lower content of critical rare-earth materials. GE will develop bulk nanostructured magnetic materials, resulting in a dramatic increase in performance over state-of-the-art magnets. The impact of these new magnets will be to increase the efficiency and power density of electric machines while reducing dependence on globally critical rare-earth minerals.”

GE claims that the production of such magnets will lead to growth in the hybrid vehicle and wind turbine generator markets. It is no secret that GE is involved in the latter industry, having recently acquired a business unit that produces permanent-magnet-based, direct-drive wind turbines.

According to GE’s project proposal, their project will focus on a goal of obtaining new magnet materials with a maximum energy product of at least 80 MGOe and with an 80% reduction in rare earth content. To achieve this aim, the research will focus on the development of nanostructured magnet materials, in order to “demonstrate for the first time a bulk exchange?spring nanocomposite permanent magnet”.

The maximum energy product of a magnetic material is a figure of merit used to compare the performance of one magnetic material to another. Currently, the highest such value for a commercially available permanent magnet hovers at around 55-57 MGOe, for magnets based on alloys of Nd-Fe-B. The maximum theoretical energy product for Nd-Fe-B magnet materials is 64 MGOe and so the GE research project, if successful, would be a real breakthrough. So-called exchange-spring magnets rely on finely tuned microstructures that contain special nano-sized grain mixtures of materials such as Nd-Fe-B and Fe.

What makes this award pretty interesting is that it is the first time in quite a while that GE has been publicly associated with research into permanent magnet materials. There is no mention in the news release from the DoE of any collaborating entities on the project, which raises the question of just how GE will staff and execute the project, in order to move the state of the art along, without formally collaborating with leading academic and research groups on the field.

This announcement follows on from the award earlier this year by ARPA-E, of $4.5 million to a consortium led by the University of Delaware, for a project titled, “High Energy Permanent Magnets for Hybrid Vehicles and Alternative Energy“. In addition to the similar goal of successfully producing nano-composite-based permanent magnets, the Delaware project will also look at completely new magnetic material compositions.

Apparently unlike the GE project, Delaware will be collaborating with a number of other groups including those at the University of Nebraska, Ames Lab / Iowa State University, Northeastern University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Electron Energy Corporation.

This Workshop will be held on the shores of the picturesque Lake Bled in Slovenia, and is the latest in a long series of similar events stretching back to the 1970s. Karl Strnat, the co-discoverer of the first generation of permanent magnets based on rare earths, organized the first Workshop at the University of Dayton, Ohio in 1974. Dr. Strnat worked at the US Air Force Research Laboratory, part of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and it was there that he, Alden Ray and others undertook the research that led to the discovery the first RE-Cobalt magnetic compounds.

I’ve had the privilege and the pleasure of attending three prior Workshops, which are held every two years. I say without hesitation that the Workshop is the most important meeting for the permanent magnet community on the calendar. The attendees are a unique blend of folks from industry and academia, technical and non-technical, and drawn from all around the world. This year’s event is being hosted by the magnetics research group at the Josef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, a group with a distinguished track record of research and development in magnetic materials.

As a slowly developing postgraduate research student in magnetic materials at the University of Birmingham, I had the somewhat dubious honor of working as part of the security detail at the Workshop held at that University in 1994. I was also part of a musical “ensemble” during that meeting that passed into Workshop legend too, but that’s about all I’ll say on that.

What I will mention though, is that it was my attendance and participation at that Workshop in Birmingham in 1994, that led to my being introduced to the leading players of the industrial and academic sectors of the rare earth magnets industry. I made contact with one particular individual at that meeting, who would eventually go on to introduce me to my first employer after graduating in 1997.

At the Workshop in Slovenia next week, I will present an invited paper titled ‘Recent Developments in the North American Permanent Magnet Industry and its Supply Chain’. It was not without a considerable sense of satisfaction at being able to “close the circle”, that I discovered that the Chair of the session in which I’ll be presenting this paper, was none other than the gentleman I first met in 1994, who helped propel me into the commercial world of permanent magnets – Mr Reinhold Strnat, a distinguished member of the magnetics community in his own right, and a now long time friend and colleague.

The ability for young, wet-behind-the-ears postgraduate research students to present their work to crusty old professors and captains of industry alike, in a non-threatening, non-pretentious setting is a near-unique aspect of the Workshop series, and was certainly an essential part of my growth in the discipline. It is from meetings and interactions like these, that the future researchers, developers, engineers and scientists in the field of rare earths, permanent magnets and allied arts will be drawn. I am pleased to note that the attendance at the Workshop in Slovenia will be as high as ever – perhaps 150 attendees, representing all the research groups, companies and other organizations of importance to the rare earth permanent magnet industry.

Interestingly, this year will see a number of presentations from folks within the broader rare earths industry, including Jack Lifton, Gary Billingsley of Great Western Minerals, and others. I’m hoping to snag some interviews and Q & As with the various leading rare earth magnet researchers while in Bled. I look forward to being able to share that info and perhaps a few photos, on my return.

CMR’s technology enables the ability to precisely tune the force curves of any magnet and any magnetic material. The resulting Coded Magnets™ behave in a wide variety of ways that conventional magnets can’t. Benefits include precision alignment, the ability to focus magnetic fields to make them stronger and much safer than conventional magnets, as well as never-before-seen behaviors including hovering. The technology is available for licensing; companies are now using them in industries ranging from aerospace to consumer electronics.

Larry Fullerton, CEO and chief scientist of CMR, originally conceived the idea of correlated magnetics in early 2008.  Since then, CMR has embarked on an aggressive program to develop and achieve patent protection for the technology. Mark Roberts, who leads the patent effort, stated, “The fact that the US Patent Office has been so consistent and so expedient regarding our patent applications provides strong validation of the pioneering nature of our technology and the value that it represents. What’s more, we are making extraordinary advances with this new technology almost every day and we regularly file new patents to protect those advances.  These are very exciting times at CMR.”

Fullerton said, “It has been very gratifying to see the fabulous response from just about everyone to whom we’ve shown our magnets including the US Patent Office.  We are now seeing this technology branching out into all sorts of very interesting application areas.”

Fullerton’s comments are being echoed by leading magnetism experts.  Dr. Gareth Hatch is a Founding Principal at Technology Metals Research, a consulting firm that provides market intelligence and analysis of critical and strategic materials. He is an expert in magnetic materials, devices and systems and was formerly Director of Technology at Dexter Magnetic Technologies, Inc.  According to Dr. Hatch, “CMR’s technology lends itself to a wide range of applications and has the potential to be of value to a wide range of industries and end users.  The ability to precisely control the surface magnetization characteristics of magnets, to this degree, is to my knowledge completely new.  CMR’s technology offers something that at first seems to have been done before.  As you look at the underlying concept though, it appears to be a significantly more far-reaching technology than anything else out there.”

About Correlated Magnetics Research, LLC: CMR was founded in 2008 to pursue research and development activities in the field of correlated magnetic structures. Coded MagnetsTM is a trademark of Correlated Magnetics Research, LLC.

For more information about programmable magnets, contact CMR or visit the CMR website at www.correlatedmagnetics.com.

North America: Ron Jewell, Correlated Magnetics Research, LLC - TEL: 678-528-411

United Kingdom: Matthew Scherba, Tx3 Solutions, Ltd - TEL: +44 (0) 207 297 2036

Denmark: Ole Toft, OLETO Corporation - TEL: +45 2922 6564

The new 3.0 MW direct drive permanent magnet generator wind turbine from Siemens (image courtesy of Siemens Energy)

There has been much interest in the development of direct drive systems in recent years, since the elimination of the gear box theoretically the turbine system more reliable.  What Siemens appears to have done is to take that a step further – by eliminating half of the components at the top of the tower, there is less maintenance for the service technicians to have to worry about.  This is good for onshore systems, but even more valuable for wind turbines that are to be located offshore, far from land. It also means, in theory, more uptime for each turbine, thus allowing them to produce electricity over wider intervals.

Siemens installed the first prototype of the SWT-3.0-101 at the beginning of December 2009 close to the town of Brande in Denmark. Siemens entered the wind energy business through the acquisition of the Danish company Bonus Energy A/S approximately five years ago, a company that had been in business since 1980, as Danregn Vindkraft. This company was a pioneer in the early days of recent interest in wind power, and was a logical acquisition for Siemens as it looked to enter the market. The Siemens Wind Power business unit is still headquartered in Brande. The permanent magnet generator is being produced by the Large Drives business unit within the Siemens Industry Sector.

The compact nature of the nacelle for the new wind turbine from Siemens means that it is easier to transport than other systems (image courtesy of Siemens Energy)

Siemens first tested direct drive systems in the form of two 3.6 MW concept turbines in July 2008, leading to the 3.0 MW prototype installed late last year. While Siemens acknowledges that they were not the first to market with a direct drive permanent magnet generator system, the company appears to have deliberately taken its time with the development of its own systems. In a news release from late last year, Mr. Stiesdal indicated that rushing to the market with immature technology was not an option for Siemens. While the nacelle contains new technology, the blades, rotor hub, tower and controller were developed from existing products. Full commercial launch of the new turbine through serial production, is expected to commence next year, with a number of systems being installed around the world in the meantime.

One comment from Siemens is worthy of note for the permanent magnet industry and its supply chain. In a promotional video that was released to coincide with the launch of the new turbine, Ernst Frendesen, Director of Global Sales and Proposals for Siemens said that the

“market demand that we expect on this machine will be extremely big and therefore for a period, we think that the market demand will outweigh the production capacity.”

Attempts to ascertain the specific amount of permanent magnet materials used in SWT-3.0-101 turbine design were declined by the company for reasons of confidentiality. It is clear, however, that Siemens is putting the permanent magnet industry [and indirectly, the rare earths supply chain] on notice.

Schematic of the new 3.0 MW direct drive permanent magnet generator wind turbine from Siemens (image courtesy of Siemens Energy)

Mr. Stiesdal has kindly agreed to do an interview with me on the SWT-3.0-101 wind turbine and its direct drive, permanent magnet-based drive system, which I will post to Terra Magnetica once completed, along with any other developments in the area of DD PMG turbines as they happen.

[last updated August 9, 2010, to correct text of Mr. Frendesen's quote from promotional video].

In the meantime, however, I wanted to mention that I have now uploaded a PDF file that contains the slides from my talk, titled “Recent Developments in Permanent Magnet Gear Systems & Machines” – click the aforementioned link to download it.

The primary purpose of any gearing system is to convert between speed and torque. Typically using a rotating input power source, we want to either increase or decrease the speed in the output shaft, via a converse decrease or increase in torque – and vice versa. Typical examples of such systems are automobiles [where we want to convert the high speed of the rotary crank shaft in the internal combustion engine to a relatively high torque at the wheels] and wind turbines [where we want to convert the high torque but relatively slow movement of the turbine blades, into the high speed required by typical generators]. This conversion between speed and torque is actually a form of power conversion from one part of the system to another.

A key drawback of using mechanical systems for such conversion is that there is friction, wear and tear. Only a few gear teeth mesh at any one time, the rated torque values are by necessity lower than peak torque because of fatigure issues, and there is a lot of lubrication and maintenance required. In addition, failures of such devices tend to be catastrophic – when a mechanical gearbox fails – it fails!

Enter the magnetic gearing system. With no contact between elements, there is no friction to cause wear and tear. Multiple magnetic poles are engaged and thus the systems are highly efficient at converting power. Input and output shafts can be isolated too, which presents additional options for the mechanical designer.

Going a step further – fully integrating magnetic gears with electrical machines such as motors and generators, results in superior, best-in-class torque densities for any electromechanical / electromagnetic power conversion system. This result makes magnetic gearing a very promising technology for a variety of devices, including the possibility of highly compact, high powered traction motors for in-wheel drives for vehicles. Torque densities of up to 140 kNm / m^3 have been achieved, with the ability to produce up to 35 kW of power in a single in-wheel traction motor.

My presentation in Florida covered the recent developments in this area, including low gear ration and high gear ration systems, the history of research into magnetic gears, as well as some potential applications. These are early days for such systems, but I think it’s only a matter of time before they are widely deployed.

You can download a copy of the paper from here.

It could have gone either way; but what did happen next, is in my mind a fascinating case study on the value of scientific collaboration in the absence of a profit motive, combined with a remarkable leap of faith, to successfully overcome political, geographic, cultural and scientific challenges.

Late in 1984, the Concerted European Action on Magnets [CEAM] was born at a meeting in Brussels, the result of a unique coming together of the leaders of five European academic laboratories. This was a time before the fall of the Berlin Wall, before the Single European Act and before the European Union. It was a time when the bureaucrats of Europe were trying to find ways to help member countries work more closely together, as part of efforts to reduce mistrust and to achieve the objective of a more integrated pan-European economic system. This is a system that today most Europeans simply take for granted, but at the time, it was far from clear as to whether or not it would, or could, be achieved.

By the end of its remarkable eight year run, CEAM eventually produced over 1,000 research papers and well over a dozen patents as a result of the research of over 150 scientists, engineers and product designers, from 93 participating laboratories in 13 countries. Crucially, CEAM produced enduring relationships and collaborative efforts among key research groups within Europe, who to this day continue to work together in areas of magnetics research. Just as important, CEAM enabled the creation of a new generation of research scientists and engineers, whose Ph.D. studentships and activities were made possible in whole or in part by CEAM.

I put it to you that the CEAM approach is potentially an effective model for the creation of a framework for reviving rare earths research and development, and the subsequent “incubation” of new technical talent for this sector, in the USA, Canada, Europe and beyond. It is imperative that the Western rare earths supply chain [such as it exists today] realizes that its constituent members are part of a single international “ecosystem”, and that the most effective way to challenge the People’s Republic of China in this area, is to work together within a framework NOT motivated strictly by profit or limited by national borders.

To learn more about CEAM, why it was so successful, and the six steps that could be taken to apply the CEAM model to the revival of rare earths research and development in the West, you can download a copy of my new paper on the subject: “The Concerted European Action on Magnets: A Model for Facing the Rare Earths Challenge?” in PDF format.

Take a read, and let me know what you think by adding comments below.

The research was conducted at IBM’S Zurich Research Labs in Switzerland, in conjunction with Fujifilm. What’s interesting is that just as hard disk drive media has gone from longitudinal recording, where the data bits are stored lengthwise, to perpendicular, where the bits are stored perpendicular to the surface – the same concept has been applied here to magnetic tape. The result in both cases is a significant increase in areal density of storage. Thinner tape can also be used with this technique, which means more tape can be stored on a spool. the particles used are made from barium ferrite – more commonly seen in everyday ceramic ferrite magnets.

However, the new tape technology created a problem:

Increasing the density of data that can be stored on a tape makes it more difficult to reliably read information. This is already a problem because of electromagnetic interference and because the heads themselves will retain a certain amount of residual magnetism from readings. To overcome this, the IBM group developed new signal processing algorithms that simultaneously process data and predict the effect that electromagnetic noise will have on subsequent readings.

Since tape backups are still a mainstay of any self-respecting IT department these days, this new development will hopefully make their lives easier. And let’s face it – if your IT department is happy – YOU’RE happy, and vice-versa, if you know what I mean….

The folks at IBM say that it might be as long as five years before the tape material is ready for prime time, but even so, this new development may well extend the lifespan of this data storage technology for many years to come.

Since then, I’ve had the chance to play with a number of their prototypes.  I had initially been a little confused as to what the technology was all about, but having a chance to play with the different configurations gave me a better feel.  In addition, earlier this week, Design World magazine published an article with an update on the correlated magnetics technology, with a couple of videos. I had some difficulties getting the first video to play, but the second gives a good overview of the products and how they work.

As the Design World article says:

You can program, or code, the behavior of complementary magnetic structures by varying the polarity (and optionally the field strengths) of each source of the arrays of magnetic sources making up each structure. This capability, along with a cost-effective manufacturing capability, provides a multi-dimensional framework for design and development of magnets having unique spatial force functions that meet specific alignment, coupling, and release criteria.

Check out the new article today. I am told that a team from Correlated will be attending the Magnetics 2010 Conference in Florida, and will be bringing a bunch of prototypes with them.  If you’re attending the meeting, take the chance to have a play with these magnets.

Disclosures: none.