Urban Mining Technology Company, LLC

Noveon Magnetics Inc.

Urban Mining Company

Other

Miha Zakotnik

Catalina Oana Tudor

Scott Eben Dunn

Peter Afiuny

Walter Del Pozzo

Davide Prosperi

Gojmir Furlan

Alex Ivor Bevan

The present disclosure is directed to methods of preparing permanent magnets having improved coercivity and remanence, the method comprising: (a) homogenizing a first population of particles of a first GBM alloy with a second population of particles of a second alloy to form a composite alloy preform, the first GBM alloy being represented by the formula: ACRCoCuM, the second alloy being represented by the formula GFeB, where AC, R, M, G, b, x, y, and z are defined; (b) heating the composite alloy preform particles to form mixed alloy particles; (c) compressing the mixed alloy particles, under a magnetic field of a suitable strength to align the magnetic particles with a common direction of magnetization and inert atmosphere, to form a green body; (d) sintering the green body; and (e) annealing the sintered body. Embodiments include magnets comprising neodymium-iron-boron core alloys, including NdFeB.

Grain boundary engineering of sintered magnetic alloys and the compositions derived therefrom

The present disclosure is directed at methods of preparing rare earth-based permanent magnets having improved coercivity and remanence, the method comprising one or more steps comprising: (a) homogenizing a first population of particles of a first GBM alloy with a second population of particles of a second core alloy to form a composite alloy preform, the first GBM alloy being substantially represented by the formula: ACRCoCuM, the second core alloy being substantially represented by the formula GFeB, where AC, R, M, G, b, x, y, and z are defined; (b) heating the composite alloy preform particles to form a population of mixed alloy particles; (c) compressing the mixed alloy particles, under a magnetic field of a suitable strength to align the magnetic particles with a common direction of magnetization and inert atmosphere, to form a green body; (d) sintering the green body; and (e) annealing the sintered body. Particular embodiments include magnets comprising neodymium-iron-boron core alloys, including NdFeB.

A caster assembly configured to process and store a material includes a reaction chamber, a storage assembly configured to store material processed in the reaction chamber, and a blower configured to process and store the material. The reaction chamber includes a vessel configured to hold the material in a melted state prior to processing and a powder generating assembly configured to receive the material from the melting vessel. The powder generating assembly includes a feeding chamber and a feeding device disposed at least partially within the feeding chamber. The feeding device includes at least one nozzle configured to inject inert fluid, where the fluid is a gas, liquid, or combination of the two into the feeding chamber and a material inlet through which the material is configured to flow into the feeding chamber to be exposed to the inert fluid, where the fluid is a gas, liquid, or combination of the two.

Caster assembly

This disclosure is directed to sintered bodies comprising grains and a grain boundary composition, wherein: (a) the grains comprise a composition substantially represented by a formula GMB, where G is Nd, Dy, Pr, Tb, or a combination thereof, and M is Co, Fe, Ni, or a combination thereof, wherein the grains are optionally doped with one or more rare earth elements; and (b) the grain boundary composition is an alloy composition substantially represented by the formula: NdDyCoCuFe, wherein the subscript values are atom percent relative to the total composition of the alloy composition. Corresponding populations of particles are also disclosed.

Grain boundary engineering

The present disclosure is directed to methods of preparing substantially spherical metallic alloyed particles, having micron and sub-micron (i.e., nanometer)-scaled dimensions, and the powders so prepared, as well as articles derived from these powders. In particular embodiments, these metallic alloyed particles, comprising rare earth metals, can be prepared in sizes as small 80 nm in diameter with size variances as low as 2-5%.

Sub-micron particles of rare earth and transition metals and alloys, including rare earth magnet materials

This disclosure is directed to methods for creating recycled Nd&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;B type permanent magnets, the methods comprising homogenizing a first population of particles of a rare earth transitional elemental additive with a second population of particles of a magnetic material, wherein the nature of the rare earth transitional elemental additive and the magnetic material are described herein. Additional steps may include compressing the population of homogenized particles together to form a green body, and heating the green body at a temperature and for a time sufficient to sinter the green body into a sintered body. Compositions resulting from these methods are also within the scope of the disclosure.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for creating magnetic material. One of the methods may make a compound that includes at least one of: i) an amount of Nd in a range of [6.1717, 11.8917] (at. %), inclusive, ii) an amount of Pr in a range of [1.5495, 4.821] (at. %), inclusive, or iii) an amount of Dy in a range of [0.2132, 5.3753] (at. %), inclusive, and an amount of Co in a range of [0, 4.0948] (at. %), inclusive, an amount of Cu in a range of [0.0545, 0.2445] (at. %), inclusive, and an amount of Fe in a range of [81.1749, 85.867] (at. %), inclusive.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for recycling magnetic material. One of the systems includes a gas mixing apparatus for fragmenting and mixing waste magnetic material comprising a plurality of reaction vessels, each of the plurality of reaction vessels comprising an internal liner having a plurality of openings defined therein, each of the internal liners configured to receive magnetic material and facilitate the circulation of gas around the magnetic material through the plurality of openings, and a pump and valve assembly operatively coupled to the plurality of reaction vessels to control the introduction of gas into the plurality of reaction vessels and to control transfer of gas between the plurality of reaction vessels.

Mixing apparatus for magnet recycling

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for recycling magnetic material. One of the systems includes a system for harvesting a waste magnet from an end-of-life product, the system comprising a positioning mechanism that defines a recess to receive and locate the end-of-life product relative to the positioning mechanism, the end-of-life product including the waste magnet, a separating station to substantially separate a portion of the end-of-life product containing the waste magnet from the remainder of the end-of-life product when the positioning mechanism moves the respective end-of-life product through the separating station, and a transport station that receives the portion of the end-of-life product containing the waste magnet from the positioning mechanism when the positioning mechanism moves the respective end-of-life product to the transport station.

Harvesting apparatus for magnet recycling

Recycled Nd&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;B sintered magnets. One of the recycled Nd&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;B sintered magnets includes a composition of WRA, where waste material W comprises material from a waste Nd&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;B sintered magnet, rare earth material R comprises at least one of: Nd or Pr, and elemental additives A comprises at least one of: Nd, Pr, Dy, Co, Cu, or Fe, and indices a, b, and c indicate atomic percentages of the corresponding compositions or elements and the atomic percentages of the rare earth material R and the elemental additives A have values satisfying Nd[0.1-19 at. %*s(Nd), x]Pr[0.1-19 at. %*s(Pr), y]Dy[0.1-19 at. %*s(Dy), z]Co[0 at. %, d]Cu[0 at. %, e]Fe[0 at. %, f] where [m,n] means a range from minimum m and maximum n, s(t) is the atomic percent of element t in starting composition, x=18 at. %-[81,99.9] at. %*(s(Nd)+s(Pr)+s(Dy)), y=18 at. %-[81,99.9] at. %*(s(Nd)+s(Pr)+s(Dy)), z=18 at. %-[81,99.9] at. %*(s(Nd)+s(Pr)+s(Dy)), d=3 at. %-[81,99.9] at. %*s(Co), e=0.3 at. %-[81,99.9] at. %*s(Cu), and f=77 at. %-[81,99.9] at. %*(s(Fe)+s(Co)).

Magnet recycling to create Nd&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;B magnets with improved or restored magnetic performance

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for recycling magnetic material to restore or improve the magnetic performance. One of the methods includes demagnetizing magnetic material from a waste magnet assembly by cyclic heating and cooling of the magnetic material, fragmenting adhesives attached to the magnetic material, cracking coating layers of the magnetic material, and subjecting the magnetic material to at least one of: a) a mechanical treatment or b) a chemical treatment, to remove the coating layers and prepare the magnetic material without impurities, fragmenting the demagnetized magnetic material to form a powder, and mixing the powder with a rare earth material R and an elemental additive A to produce a homogeneous powder, wherein the rare earth material R comprises at least one of: Nd or Pr, and the elemental additive A comprises at least one of: Nd, Pr, Dy, Co, Cu, and Fe.

Growing community of inventors

Newark, DE, United States of America

Miha Zakotnik