With the newly-developed hot deformed neodymium magnet, Daido Steel will make a new entry into the market for magnets used for drive motors of hybrid vehicles, which has been basically monopolized by sintered neodymium magnets. Honda also noted during the announcement that not only would cutting out the rare earth metals save money, but it would also reduce the potential for price fluctuations on the materials it uses to build the engines. However, the magnets still use the light rare earth metal neodymium (seen above), which in addition to China is also available in North America and Australia.
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Deposits of heavy rare earth elements are distributed unevenly around the world.
Daido Steel’s subsidiary Daido Electronics has been mass-producing neodymium magnets using the hot deformation method, which is different from the typical sintering production method for neodymium magnets.
Research firm Technavio estimates that the rare-earth metals market will grow at 14 percent annually and will be worth more than $9 billion by 2019.
Magnet manufacturers usually add heavy rare-earth metals such as dysprosium or terbium in order for the magnet to have the high heat-resistance properties needed to operate in a vehicle motor. Honda developed the new motor with Japanese metal supplier Daido Steel Co., the companies announced Tuesday. There are 17 elements considered to fall into the rare-earth category.
Japan’s automakers, which have made rare-earth-using hybrid vehicles a centerpiece of their green auto strategies, learned the hard way about dependence on China in 2010.
Japan backed down. And despite Beijing’s denial that it ever officially halted exports in the first place, traders were telling journalists shipments then magically resumed.
The motor is not completely without rare-earth elements.
High-power magnets used in electric or hybrid vehicle motors use another rare-earth called neodymium. The scarcity of rare-earth metals and uncertainty of China’s export policy are major concerns, Atsushi Hattori, deputy general manager at Daido’s specialty steel solutions department, told reporters Tuesday in Tokyo. Demand for these magnets is expected to soar in coming years as more consumers buy all-electric and hybrid vehicles.
Honda expects to deploy the new motors in other hybrid vehicles.
With this new magnet, Daido will enter a market monopolised by sintered neodymium magnets.
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For use in the drive motors of electric vehicles, neodymium magnets must have high heat resistance properties as they are used in a high temperature environment.
