Testing shows that permanent magnets produced by additive manufacturing outperform bonded magnets made using traditional methods.

Magnet Applications Inc., Dubois, Pennsylvania, a North American manufacturer of compression-bonded magnets and injection-molded magnets, hybrid magnets and magnetic assemblies, has announced that its engineers have worked with researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to prove that permanent neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnets produced by additive manufacturing (commonly referred to a “3D printing”) outperform bonded magnets made by traditional methods while also generating less waste.

Magnet Applications, a Newton, Kansas-based Bunting Magnetics company, manufactured the starting composite pellets with 65 volume percent isotropic NdFeB powder and 35 percent polyamide nylon-12 binder in a precise ratio, blended to a consistent texture, the company says. The 3D printing was performed at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at ORNL with the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM system). Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a Tennessee-based science and technology laboratory managed by the United States Department of Energy. The complete study is published in Scientific Reports at www.nature.com/articles/srep36212.   

NdFeB magnets are used in robotics, wind turbines, electric vehicles, cellphones, electric motors and other consumer and industrial equipment.

“Additive manufacturing in magnets provides multiple benefits,” says Dr. John Ormerod, senior technical advisor, Magnet Applications. “They have more design flexibility, which is especially beneficial in sensor technology, and it creates less waste than in the traditional sintering process.”

He continues, “With rapidly advancing technologies, the ability to manufacture the strongest magnet available in any shape without tooling, in any quantity, unleashes so many design opportunities. The work has demonstrated the potential of additive manufacturing to be applied to wide range of magnetic materials and assemblies.

“Magnet Applications and many of our customers are excited to explore the commercial impact of this technology in the future,” Ormerod says.

Further research will include printing magnets in various strengths with preferred direction of magnetization, Magnet Applications says.

Contributing to the project were Ling Li, Angelica Tirado, Orlando Rios, Brian Post, Vlastimil Kunc, R. R. Lowden and Edgar Lara-Curzio at ORNL, as well as researchers I. C. Nlebedim and Thomas Lograsso, working with Critical Materials Institute at Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa. Robert Fredette and John Ormerod from Magnet Applications contributed to the project through an MDF technology collaboration. The DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office provides support for ORNL’s MDF, a public-private partnership to engage industry with national labs.

The Sustana aluminum product is manufactured with both low carbon emissions and recycled content.

The aluminum company Alcoa Corp., Pittsburgh, has unveiled Sustana, its newest aluminum product, at the Aluminum 2016 trade show in Dusseldorf, Germany. The new product line is manufactured with low carbon emissions and recycled content. Alcoa says the new product is well-positioned to meet customer demand for sustainable aluminum products.

The Sustana product has been designed to help companies reduce the carbon intensity of their supply chain and achieve their sustainability goals.

According to Alcoa, the Sustana family includes two key products:

“Companies across a range of end markets have made sustainability a core business imperative and, as a result, they’ve prioritized the use of low-carbon aluminum products with proper certifications,” says Timothy Reyes, president of Alcoa Cast Products. “By introducing these eco-friendly Sustana products, which offer significant sustainability benefits when compared to the industry average, Alcoa is underscoring its commitment to helping customers reduce their environmental footprint.

“This global product launch also builds on our own long-standing commitment to sustainability, which includes several noteworthy reductions in our own carbon footprint,” Reyes continues.

Company adds scrap management services to its contract with Evraz Pueblo.

Harsco Corp., Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, has signed a multiyear expansion of its steel mill services contract at the Evraz Pueblo steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado. The expansion includes scrap management services.

Harsco has been supporting the mill’s production with a range of on-site metal recovery and slag handling services for nearly 15 years. The new services, which include scrap handling, processing and inspection, are expected to generate additional revenue of $50 million over the contract duration, the company says. 

Evraz Pueblo produces high-strength rail, seamless pipe, rod and coiled reinforcing bar. The plant can produce more than 300 different grades of steel and serves as part of a network of Evraz North America production sites that rank as the largest North American producer by volume in the rail and large diameter pipe markets.

Harsco says its operations at the site have twice been recognized by Harsco’s senior management for outstanding safety performance, having completed three consecutive years without a lost-time injury and currently closing in on a fourth year.

New full-service office will expand the company’s footprint in a region with spurred economic activity.

Zinc recycling company signs deal with Korea Zinc to build recycling project in Vietnam.

ZincOx Resources plc, a Surrey, U.K.-based company that recycles electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) generated in processing ferrous scrap, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Korea Zinc (KZC), a smelting company headquartered in Seoul, to establish a joint venture that will focus on building a recycling project in Vietnam.

Under the MoU, KZC will fund 100% of a definitive development study that will allow the two companies to raise the project financing to build the recycling project. The study is expected to cost $2.5 million.

Following the study’s completion, KZC will own 51% of a special purpose company that will be set up to develop the recycling plant; the remaining 49% will be held by ZincOx.

The recycling plant as planned would handle 100,000 tonnes per year of EAFD generated by recycling galvanized steel scrap and would upgrade the iron and zinc intermediate products of the rotary hearth furnace (RHF) into final products.

The RHF technology was developed by ZincOx in Korea. 

In the event the study costs more than $3 million, the interest of ZincOx in the joint venture will be diluted proportionately according to the additional funds that KZC will have contributed. However, ZincOx will be able to buy back its interest to 49% on the same terms in the following six months.

The companies are partners on a similar project in Korea that has a design capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year of EAFD.

Andrew Woollett, ZincOx CEO, says, “We can now accelerate the programme for the development of this important project, and we look forward to entering into the full Joint Venture Agreement in the very near future.”