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Oct 25, 2024

World’s only producer of rare-earth-free magnets opens commercial plant

Currently, almost 90% of all powerful permanent magnets are produced in China. Prabhat Ranjan Mishra Niron's magnets reportedly offer high magnetic field strength and enhanced temperature range.

Currently, almost 90% of all powerful permanent magnets are produced in China.

Prabhat Ranjan Mishra

Niron's magnets reportedly offer high magnetic field strength and enhanced temperature range. (Representational image)

Niron Magnetics/yoh4nn

A Minnesota-based company has opened its commercial pilot plant to ramp up rare earth-free permanent magnet production. Niron Magnets’ facility in Minneapolis will produce sustainable alternative to rare earth permanent magnets that are significant for multiple types of technologies.The company claims that its manufacturing process combines breakthroughs in nanomaterial engineering with well understood, mature metallurgical methods to deliver high performance magnets at a more stable cost of alternatives.Niron also maintains that its technology is the first and only powerful permanent magnet that does not require any rare earth elements.

The company claims that these powerful magnets are manufactured from iron and nitrogen—two abundant, safe, and non-toxic materials—that can be sustainably sourced in the U.S. Niron also highlighted that currently, almost 90% of all powerful permanent magnets are produced in China and this concentrated supply chain creates significant national security risks and environmental challenges for this important technology.The company stressed that the permanent magnets play an increasingly vital, hidden role in modern technologies.

Common devices that are used daily, such as computers, appliances, and automobiles are powered by permanent-magnet motors that convert electricity to motion. “In the production of electricity, permanent magnets are found at the heart of generators,” said Niron.“With increasing demand, there has been a growing interest in alternatives to the unsustainable rare earth magnets being used today. Niron’s Clean Earth Magnet technology will enable mass production of high performance permanent magnets based entirely on abundant, sustainable input materials,” added the company.

Jonathan Rowntree, CEO of Niron Magnetics, stated that the company is advancing the magnet industry with an inherently sustainable technology developed right here in the United States.

“With the official opening of our commercial pilot plant, we’ve taken a significant step towards establishing a reliable, domestic supply of high-performance magnets critical for US national security, while launching the next generation of clean energy technologies and sustainable manufacturing,” said Rowntree.

Building off more than a decade of research and development, Niron Magnetics claims that its manufacturing techniques precisely control and manipulate the crystal structure of Iron Nitride to obtain high strength magnets.

These magnets reportedly offer high magnetic field strength and enhanced temperature range. The company claims that these magnets are developed using cost-stable input materials and scalable manufacturing process. Clean abundant input materials minimize environmental impact, according to the company.

Niron Magnetics was also named as one of America’s Top GreenTech Companies of 2024 by Time and Statista. The company was ranked #22 out of 250 companies.

The company claimed that Niron was chosen from a pool of 4,600 candidate companies through a comprehensive research study conducted to identify the top companies in the United States that focus on developing and providing green technologies, products, or services that help mitigate or reverse the impact of human activities on the environment.

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Prabhat Ranjan Mishra Prabhat, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, is a tech and defense journalist. While he enjoys writing on modern weapons and emerging tech, he has also reported on global politics and business. He has been previously associated with well-known media houses, including the International Business Times (Singapore Edition) and ANI.

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