X-MINING Contributing to SDGs with Wellmax™ SmFeN magnets

SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals: Sustainable Development Goals) is a framework for making our world more sustainable and fairer with 17 sustainable development goals advocated by the United Nations.

• How can we contribute through rare earth magnetic materials to build a sustainable future?
• How do our efforts and products lead to positive changes in such areas as industry, energy and the environment?

Goals to reduce CO2 have been set in industrialized nations and other countries worldwide, encouraging the widespread use of EV and the use of natural power sources such as wind power.

Rare-earth magnets, which have strong magnetic forces, are used in motors and generators that are indispensable for this promotion. Especially, demand for NdFeB (neodymium-iron-boron) magnets is expected to grow.

Ores containing rare earth elements contain multiple elements, although there are differences in concentration depending on the place of origin. After mining the ore, the necessary elements are taken out through multiple separation and purification processes such as solvent extraction. Elements with low demand are also contained in the ore, so they are produced in the process of mining and refining elements with high demand. These elements are being stocked or backfilled in a solution that is in the process of separating the elements during the refining process, or in the state of an oxide obtained by firing the solution.

In this way, a great deal of energy is needed for mining and refining to extract resources with high demand from limited global resources. And this energy is used to extract some rare earth elements such as Neodimium(Nd) and Dysprosium(Dy), the elements with low demand such as Samarium(Sm) are not used and stocked. We believe that effectively utilizing Sm of excess elements can contribute to SDGs.

Motors with strong magnetic forces of magnets can reduce the amount of electricity consumption or can be made smaller and lighter. So, the use of NdFeB magnets is effective in reducing the size and weight of motors, leading to energy savings in motors. However, this is not desirable from the viewpoint of the effective use of global resource, as demand for Nd for specified elements is accelerated.

Magnetic force of bonded magnets using Sm (samarium) is not as strong as that of NdFeB sintered magnets, but it has equal or higher magnetic force compared to NdFeB bonded magnets. Therefore, we believe that applications used Sm bonded magnets will leads to SDGs both in terms of saving energy consumption and global resources at the same time.

Our lineup of rare-earth magnetic materials include samarium-iron-nitrogen that use Sm. If you are interested, please feel free to contact us.

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