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Grand Champion Poster
Posted 03 June 2026 - 01:15 PM
The Wall Street Journal had an article discussing Rare Earth-free magnets. One company has started commercializing a Iron Nitride magnet which is, by their claim, able to replace Rare Earth magnets in many applications. I would be interested to find out the specifications for this magnet.
BTW: the technology of this magnet has been around since the 1950s but only recently has there been a breakthrough is production methods for commercial markets.
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Grand Champion Poster
Posted 03 June 2026 - 05:08 PM
Georgetown has been working on this for a while.
always in last place
Posted 03 June 2026 - 07:50 PM
Niron Magnetics seems to be the company involved in the Iron Nitride magnets: https://nironmagnetics.com. At this point, looks like a start-up taking lots of people's investments to start a production manufacturing facility. Applications sound like fairly large magnet applications well beyond small magnets for use in this hobby. Currently the website only gives product generalizations and no actual product specs; seems more like enticing investors.
Grand Champion Poster
Posted 04 June 2026 - 04:48 PM
this seems like the type of technology the company I used to work for would be involved in, since the size and shapes of the magnets would directly affect the design of the magnesium castings they produce. But I haven't heard anything. I suspect their engineering dept. is taking a wait and see attitude. Could be that the price of the new magnets will be high enough to put off any manufacturers that might use them instead of the rare earths. Longevity will be a huge factor. We already know that rare earths hold their strength.
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We have neodymium ore in this country. The problem is the cost of mining it. The Chinese pay rate of pay is $1.15/hour. The US federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour. In both cases you can make more if you prove you are worth it, ( or are in a union)
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My family had a Zenith color TV for 17 years. In the same amount of time I have had two Samsung, a LG, and a Japanese made Sony. The Zenith cost 2 21/2 weeks pay in 1967. $550.00. The four Asian made TVs cost not quite $2000.00 in 1967 dollars. Who's the dummy here?
always in last place
Posted 07 June 2026 - 03:08 PM
Most of the rare earth magnetic material comes from China or Russia. Entities like US DoD will be interested in alternatives regardless of cost, and I suspect this will drive development of the new material. Initial pricing of any new technology is always high to recover the R&D and start-up costs. I'm sure any new magnet material will be likewise.
China apparently has an abundance of neodymium they're willing to sell at low cost, since there's no shortage of pm DC motors and other products at relatively low cost with them.
