Modbert
Daydream Believer
- Sep 2, 2008
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Japan finds alternative to China's rare earth metal stranglehold - Ferrite is might | TechEye
This is excellent news considering China's stranglehold on rare earth metals that are used in everything from magnets to cars to missiles. At the current rate of consumption, China alone will run out of their own supply by 2012-2014 leaving the rest of us on our own.
Of course, it doesn't help matters about the fear of China flooding the rare metals market like they did previously to keep prices down, therefore driving out the rest of the competition again.
China's got the upper hand on the world with its rare earth metals, which are required for fancy technology we take for granted, and as recently as June this year said it doesn't want to hand them out willy-nilly. Japanese manufacturing giant Hitachi doesn't like the idea of being under the thumb and has developed a kind of motor which uses ferric oxide, a cheaper and easier to find alternative to the likes of dysprosium and neodymium.
It will use these in hybrid car manufacturing - which until now it was estimated that it takes between 1 and 1.5kg of rare earth metals to build. Hitachi reckons its ferrite magnet motor will do just the trick though a bit of technical and engineering wizardry was needed to get it up to scratch. At first its magnetic force was about 50 percent weaker than the standard rare earth model, reports Nikkei (subscription), but Hitachi managed to make improvements on the motor structure around the rotator to magnify its power.
Hitachi now claims that its home grown alternative works at almost the same performance level - but with power consumption running at 10 percent lower. At the moment the motor isn't large enough for vehicles, but Hitachi's on the case. In the meantime it is planning to begin implementing its ferrite motors in smaller kit like air conditioners.
This is excellent news considering China's stranglehold on rare earth metals that are used in everything from magnets to cars to missiles. At the current rate of consumption, China alone will run out of their own supply by 2012-2014 leaving the rest of us on our own.
Of course, it doesn't help matters about the fear of China flooding the rare metals market like they did previously to keep prices down, therefore driving out the rest of the competition again.