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Niron Magnetics – powerful, rare earth-free permanent magnets
- aj7 4y agohttps://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e5/03/de/0743b473066aa1/US20160141082A1.pdf https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e5/03/de/0743b47...
- baybal2 4y ago[dead]
- telotortium 4y agoDiscovered via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34356851 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34356851. See also https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/iron-nitrides-powerful-magnets-without-the-rare-earth-elements/ https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/iron-nitrides-powerful-magne...
- gavin_gee 4y agonow this is potentially revolutionary! Can anyone share more about the raw input ingredients to make these?
- loktarogar 4y agoThe site says they're made from Iron Nitride
- ortusdux 4y agoIron and nitrogen. And the production methods look to be quite simple and scalable. I agree, this could be revolutionary. https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/iron-nitrides-powerful-magnets-without-the-rare-earth-elements/ https://hackaday.com/2022/09/01/iron-nitrides-powerful-magne... https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160141082A1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160141082A1/en
- sparrish 4y agoI'm not familiar with the production process but it seems like these could be made from nearly 100% recycled materials. That would be huge.
- ortusdux 4y ago"Alternatively, iron oxide can be mixed with ammonium nitrate in a planetary ball mill; after a few days of milling at 600 rpm, the stainless steel balls decompose the ammonium nitrate into elemental nitrogen, which diffuses into the iron nanoparticles. The resulting α”-Fe16N2 is then separated by magnet and can be formed into solid shapes." Literally just rust and fertilizer.
- Turing_Machine 4y agoYou do have to be very careful if you start piling up ammonium nitrate on an industrial scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_disasters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_disas... I'm not sure I'd want to stand next to a ball mill grinding up ammonium nitrate, myself.
- buildbot 4y agoPlus the iron powder which I am pretty sure would start burning too...
- Turing_Machine 4y agoHmm... maybe. It would depend on what stage of the process. Sounds like it starts with iron oxide, which wouldn't burn per se. But it also sounds like the iron oxide is reduced to iron nanoparticles with dissolved nitrogen in the process. Those would probably burn well, and even if they didn't, you might wind up with a bunch of molten iron, thermite-style. That wouldn't be good, either.
- eternityforest 4y ago
- at_a_remove 4y agoNeodymium magnets can get to around 13,000 gauss. Digging about, Niron Magnetics is aiming for 9,000 gauss for the first generation at 15,000 gauss for the second generation, so these should be comparable. Expanded temperature range. If they're even slightly less brittle than the notoriously frangible neodymium magnets, the second generation ought to clobber them. Curious to know what, if any, drawbacks would exist.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago> frangible Learned a new word today!
- ahazred8ta 4y ago"Fetter this malefactor to the jagged rocks In adamantine bonds infrangible." -- Prometheus Bound
- gorjusborg 4y agoIf I've learned anything it's that there is always a tradeoff. The question is whether the downside affects your application.
- mintysoap 4y agoInteresting, but seems that this still has a long way to go. The highest maximum energy product they've been able to achieve is 20 MGOe in thin foils, compared to approx 40 for NdFeB. But, at least might work out being a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to SmCo. https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/219403 https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/219403
- nimish 4y agoThe cost reductions alone would be staggering. Iron and nitrogen are incredibly cheap
- ajsnigrutin 4y agoI might be getting old, but if there is no "buy now" button on the webpage, i just assume it's vaporware...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dsr_ 4y agoI'm guessing that they've spent the last 13 years figuring out a production process, then raising money to make them rather than selling out to another company.
- jacquesm 4y agoWith 39 million raised to date that's a lot of figuring. https://www.google.com/search?q=niron+magnetics+funding https://www.google.com/search?q=niron+magnetics+funding
- dsr_ 4y agoHow much does a magnet factory cost? How big is the market? Does the market expand if the cost drops by a factor of 2? Of an order of magnitude? I have no idea of the scale, except that rare earth element production appears to be about 250000 tonnes per year.
- jacquesm 4y agoA typical magnet manufacturing installation is a few hundred K of Capital expense. You need to have a way to create blanks and then you need a way to magnetize the blanks. The usual method in a nutshell: - combine the powdered raw materials in a die - compress the powder to create a blank - coat the blank to prevent oxidization - magnetize the blank using a powerful electromagnetic field - QA to ensure proper field strength and inspect for damage I wonder what the hang-up here is.
- 83 4y agoI hear you. Batteries, magnets, and motors seem especially prone to this type of page where it constantly says "will enable", "will produce", and experts who "will help" this technology come to fruition. At this point I consider it spam unless it says "has enabled", "have produced", or gives some already achieved numbers.
- dsr_ 4y ago2010: https://phys.org/news/2010-03-iron-nitrogen-compound-strongest-magnet.html https://phys.org/news/2010-03-iron-nitrogen-compound-stronge... Attributes work to "A group of materials physicists from Twin Cities, Minnesota, led by Jian-Ping Wang have found a material comprising 16 iron atoms and two of nitrogen is approximately 18% more magnetic than the predicted limit." Wang is the CEO of Niron (Nitrogen-Iron)
- rcgorton 4y ago[dead]
- waltbosz 4y agoOff topic: I feel like magnets are the closest tangible thing to magic that exists in our universe.
- notjulianjaynes 4y agoOff topic and probably another rule: Insane Clown Posse agrees with you. "Fuckin' magnets, how do they work?" From their hit single, "Miracles," on a Psychopathic Records. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_-agl0pOQfs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_-agl0pOQfs
- dustingetz 4y agowait till you learn how the electric force and the magnetic force interact with each other such that an electric force causes a magnetic force in front of it, and then that new magnetic force then causes a new electric force in front of it, and like so they recursively sustain each other, such that they self-propagate over vast distances (unlike just a magnetic field which fades off as you get further away), and what do we call such an infinitely self-propagating electromagnetic wave? a photon
- waltbosz 4y agoI've taken a few physics classes that covered such topics. Just today I was winding some copper wire into a coil and then winding another wire into coils around every couple of loops of the original wire. I don't know enough physics to predict what kind of magnet field running a current through the two coils would produce. Probably create a black hole or something /s. Seriously though, are there tools to stimulate magnetic induction fields in coils of wire?
- aliqot 4y agoThat copper coil should do it on its own in some capacity. Drop a magnet or something through the coil. It should slow down passing through. Lenz's Law.
- AlotOfReading 4y ago
- fendy3002 4y agoCan permanent magnets theoretically realize perpetual motion machines?
- phkahler 4y agoNo. Magnetic fields are conservative and are not a source of energy.
- aidenn0 4y agoI notice WD is a partner, and while WD does need permanent magnets for actuation, many of the papers listed are for magentization of thin-film Fe16N2, so I wonder if they are looking at it as a recording material...
- gok 4y agoWell I can see the attraction
- jakedata 4y agoI love that they generated their name the same way they manufacture their product, by mashing nitrogen and iron together.