Title: RARE EARTH-BASED PERMANENT MAGNETS: PROPERTIES, PRODUCTION, AND RECYCLING ROUTES_lecture content, learning outcomes and lecturer CV
Course: Green deal and circular economy challenges of rare earth-based permanent magnets with technical aspects > Section: ONLINE WORKSHOP MATERIALS

The unrivalled magnetic properties of the rare-earth-based permanent magnets will be interpreted in relation to the materials’ microstructural specifics. The lecture will highlight the advantages and drawbacks of the relevant magnet production and recycling routes.

Lecture content:

-          The magnetism of rare-earth magnets

-          Types of rare-earth magnets

-          Nd-Fe-B magnets and their applications

-          Microstructure-properties relations

-          How to control the properties via processing

-          Alloying additions and grain-boundary engineering

-          Trade-off character of magnetic properties

-          Grain-boundary diffusion process (GBDP)

-          Drawbacks of conventional sintering methods

-          Contemporary production routes

-          Recycling approaches and challenges

Learning outcomes

 By the completion of this lecture, students will be expected to

-          summarize the most important applications for rare-earth-based permanent magnets

-          identify the advantages of rare-earth-based over non-rare-earth magnets for energy-conversion applications

-          understand the basic relationships between the magnetic properties and microstructural specifics

-          compare the existing production routes for Nd-Fe-B magnets

-          extract the advantages of the alternative approaches towards the manufacture of magnets (additive manufacturing and rapid powder consolidation)

-          critically assess the current recycling strategies

Dr. Tomaž Tomše is a researcher at the Department for nanostructured materials, Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI). He is a member of a Group for Magnetic materials, focusing on novel synthesis routes for Nd-Fe-B-type permanent magnets. In the scope of his doctoral study, he proposed a novel multicomponent-magnet concept to reduce the use of critical elements. He collaborated with industrial partner ABB Switzerland, Ltd., Corporate Research, on developing a selective-laser-melting (SLM) approach to the net-shape manufacture of rare-earth magnets. His main field of expertise is spark-plasma sintering (SPS), a modern sintering technique that enables rapid consolidation of metallic powders under nonequilibrium conditions. He is involved in several national, EU, and industrial projects based on permanent magnets and recycling. He was a principal investigator for two industrial projects and was granted a national post-doctoral research project in 2020. In 2021, he was awarded a research scholarship by the World Federation of Scientists in the Slovenian National Scholarship Program frame. His bibliography includes seven scientific papers and two patents.