What’s New in Materials, Applications and Patents
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
2 likes•462 views
The latest developments in Dy-diffused high temperature NdFeB grades, NdFeB radially oriented rings, Fe16N2, higher energy product bonded magnets and 3D printing will be discussed. An update on the permanent magnet market and application drivers together with the history and latest status of the Hitachi Metals patent litigation will be presented. Magnetic refrigeration systems (MRS) based on the magnetocalorific effect have the potential to be a major new application area for magnetic materials. The recent announcement of a commercial MRS refrigeration display case will be discussed.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to What’s New in Materials, Applications and Patents
Similar to What’s New in Materials, Applications and Patents (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
What’s New in Materials, Applications and Patents
- 1. What’s New in Materials, Applications and Patents Dr. John Ormerod Senior Technology Advisor Magnet Applications, Inc. o
- 2. A Disclaimer Obviously written by a Physicist who is baffled by phase diagrams!
- 3. What’s New in Permanent Magnets? GBD Dy-diffused magnets Fe16N2 magnets Hyperloop Rare earth magnet recycling Anisotropic bonded magnets Marine electrical drives Nanocomposite magnets MnBi magnets Daido Steel low Dy magnet AM/3D printing High Br Sm2Co17 Aerospace electrical drives Magnetic Refrigeration Hitachi Metals Patent Litigation
- 4. What’s New in Permanent Magnets? GBD Dy-diffused magnets Fe16N2 magnets Hyperloop Rare earth magnet recycling Anisotropic bonded magnets Marine electrical drives Nanocomposite magnets MnBi magnets Daido Steel low Dy magnet AM/3D printing High Br Sm2Co17 Aerospace electrical drives Hitachi Metals Patent Litigation Magnetic Refrigeration
- 5. Presentation Outline • Introduction to Magnet Applications, Inc.. • Patents - Hitachi Metals NdFeB patent litigation update • Materials - Additive Manufacturing/3D printing of permanent magnets • Applications - Magnetic Refrigeration Systems
- 6. Introduction: Magnet Applications, Inc.. • Visit the new website at: http://magnetapplications.com. • A Bunting Magnetics Company: https://buntingmagnetics.com/. • Largest North American manufacturer of compression bonded NdFeB and injection molded ferrite, NdFeB and hybrid magnets. • Supply full range of engineered magnets and magnetic assemblies. • Located in DuBois, PA – Originally established in UK over 50 years ago – sister company located in Berkhamsted, UK. • Primary applications are BLDC motors and sensors in the automotive, medical and industrial markets.
- 7. Introduction: Magnet Applications, Inc.. • Pre-production magnetic design services including 3D magnetic modeling. • Industry leading technical services to optimize the material for the application. • Investing in R & D for next generation of magnetic materials. • The backing of strong family ownership – in business for over 55 years. • ITAR / DFARS registered for Defense Industry. • ISO-9001 Certified Quality System with a strong continuous improvement culture. • Very strong international supply chain for the complete range of permanent magnet materials.
- 8. Presentation Outline • Introduction to Magnet Applications, Inc.. • Patents – Hitachi Metals NdFeB patent litigation update • Materials - Additive Manufacturing/3D printing of permanent magnets • Applications - Magnetic Refrigeration Systems
- 9. Hitachi Metals NdFeB Patent Litigation Update History Part 1 – USITC Phase • At the start of the decade the industry was eagerly anticipating the expiration of the compositional/tetragonal structure HML NdFe(Co)B US patent 5,645,651 in July 2014. • August 2012 HML filed a complaint with the USITC against 29 manufacturers and importers of RE magnets and products containing RE magnets. • 4 US patents cited; 6,461,565, 6,491,765, 6,527,874 and 6,537,385.
- 10. Hitachi Metals NdFeB Patent Litigation Update History Part 1 - Key Claims of Cited Patents • 6,461,565 – Method of pressing a RE alloy magnetic powder in a controlled environment from 5oC to 30oC and RH from 40% to 65%. • 6,527,874 – RE magnetic alloy containing 0.1 to 1.0 At % Nb. • 6,491,765 and 6,537,385 – Removal of RE-rich particles less than 1 micron from RE alloy magnetic powder.
- 11. Hitachi Metals NdFeB Patent Litigation Update History Part 1 – USITC Phase • USITC instituted a section 337 investigation in September 2012; multiple law firms and dozens of attorneys were involved. • During the ensuing months the 5 original licensed Chinese manufacturers (plus 3 others) agreed to new terms under the cited patents. • A matter of days before the July 2013 trial HML announced that settlement agreements had been reached with all parties and withdraw the petition to the USITC i.e. no day in court to determine validity of the cited patents.
- 12. Hitachi Metals NdFeB Patent Litigation Update History Part 2- Alliance of Rare-Earth Permanent Magnet Industry • August 2013- It was announced that “a dozen Chinese rare earth magnet companies have formed an industrial alliance to sue Japan’s Hitachi Metals for holding invalid patents and infringing patent rights of Chinese companies”. • Petition for Inter Partes Review (IPR) of certain claims of 6,491,765 and 6,537,385 filed with USPTO August 11, 2014. • IPR’s granted by Patent Trial and Appeal Board on February 2015
- 13. Hitachi Metals NdFeB Patent Litigation Update History Part 2 - Independent Claim Construction
- 14. Hitachi Metals NdFeB Patent Litigation Update History Part 2 – Jet Milling
- 15. “ORDERED that claims 1, 5, and 6 of the ’385 patent have been shown by a preponderance of the evidence to be unpatentable.” “ORDERED that claims 1–4, 11, 12, and 14–16 of the ’765 patent have been shown by a preponderance of the evidence to be unpatentable.” Hitachi Metals NdFeB Patent Litigation Update History Part 2- Alliance of Rare-Earth Permanent Magnet Industry On February 8, 2016 the PTAB issued their Final Written Decision for Patents 6,537,385 and 6,491,765 as follows:
- 16. Hitachi Metals NdFeB Patent Litigation Update History Part 2- Alliance of Rare-Earth Permanent Magnet Industry • Case closed – not quite! • April 8, 2016 HML files notice of appeal. • September 16, HML files appeal brief of PTAB’s decision to Federal Court of Appeals. • October 26, 2016 Alliance files their Appellee Brief. • December 21, 2016 HML files their reply brief. • If you are suffering from insomnia the briefs are available at http://www.jocllc.com/news.html. • Probably another 6 to 9 months before the Appeals Court rules.
- 17. Presentation Outline • Introduction to Magnet Applications, Inc.. • Patents – Hitachi Metals NdFeB patent litigation update • Materials - Additive Manufacturing/3D printing of permanent magnets • Applications - Magnetic Refrigeration Systems
- 18. Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing of Bonded Magnets MAI and ORNL Joint R and D Project MAI and ORNL were awarded a Cooperative Research and Development award to study the application of additive manufacturing to bonded magnets and systems.
- 19. Additive Manufacturing of Bonded Magnets Acknowledgements and Credits
- 20. Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing of Bonded Magnets • Additive Manufacturing refers to a process by which digital 3D design data is used to build up a component in layers by depositing material. The term "3D printing" is increasingly used as a synonym for Additive Manufacturing. • AM can form complex shapes requiring little or no tooling and post-processing thus reducing the amount of waste generated.
- 21. AM is an Industrial Manufacturing Technology
- 22. Types of Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing
- 23. Vat Photo- polymerization Material Jetting Material Extrusion Sheet Lamination Powder Bed Fusion Directed Energy Deposition Binder Jetting Types of Additive Manufacturing ASTM International: Technical Committee F42 on Additive Manufacturing
- 24. Indirect 3D Printing - ExOne Binder Jet Process
- 25. -40 -20 0 20 40 -200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 per gram of composite per gram of MQP assuming 60 wt % M(emu/g) H (kOe) i HC = 9 kOe Binderjet MQP-resin Bonded NdFeB Magnets Produced by Binder Jetting
- 26. Binder Jetting of NdFeB Bonded Magnets JOM, The Metals & Minerals & Materials Society, April, 2016
- 27. Vat Photo- polymerization Material Jetting Material Extrusion Sheet Lamination Powder Bed Fusion Directed Energy Deposition Binder Jetting Types of Additive Manufacturing ASTM International: Technical Committee F42 on Additive Manufacturing
- 28. BAAM is an industry scale material extrusion additive manufacturing system that enables rapid and cost effective production of large scale components Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) of NdFeB Bonded Magnets
- 29. Big Area Additive Manufacturing of NdFeB Bonded Magnets
- 30. Big Area Additive Manufacturing of NdFeB Bonded Magnets
- 31. BAAM versus IM Magnetic Properties
- 32. Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) of NdFeB Bonded Magnets Surprise – you can make big magnets!
- 33. Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) of NdFeB Bonded Magnets Scientific Reports, October 2016 (www.nature.com/scientificreports)
- 34. Can we “3D print” an Electric Motor? University of Nottingham, UK – Blog/INNOVATE April 2015
- 35. Can we “3D print” an Electric Motor? University of Nottingham, UK – Blog/INNOVATE April 2015 “Until now the design of standard magnetic devices has not gone much beyond the two-dimensions, especially due to constraints imposed by the (mainly subtractive and formative) manufacturing processes employed.” “The possibility offered by AM to extend the design of components to three-dimensional space without the constraints of traditional manufacturing introduces new opportunities towards the production of highly power-dense electrical machines, where the core magnetic material is added only where it is actually needed. The impact of such innovative devices would be highly beneficial especially for transport applications, where weight is the primary determinant of vehicle efficiency”
- 36. Presentation Outline • Introduction to Magnet Applications, Inc.. • Patents – Hitachi Metals NdFeB patent litigation update • Materials - Additive Manufacturing/3D printing of permanent magnets • Applications - Magnetic Refrigeration Systems
- 37. Magnetic Refrigeration Systems Acknowledgements and Credits • Timothy Lorkin – MoveOnn Inside • Cooltech Applications - http://www.cooltech-applications.com/
- 38. Magnetic Refrigeration Systems The Next Big Application for Magnets? • Some classes of materials, called Magnetocaloric Materials (MCM), heat up when immersed in a magnetic field and cool down when removed from it, almost instantaneously. The phenomenon, known as Magnetocaloric Effect (MCE), was discovered by E. Warburg in 1881 and is derived from the ordering and disordering of magnetic domains by an applied field.
- 39. Magnetic Refrigeration Systems • In 1997, the Ames Laboratory implemented a proof of principle using Gadolinium. Reacting at ambient temperature (~20°C), the use of Gadolinium was a milestone for all developments of magnetic refrigeration systems for commercial applications. • All else being equal, the degree of temperature change depends on the strength of the magnetic field
- 40. Magnetic Refrigeration Systems • The cycle is performed as a refrigeration cycle that is analogous to the Carnot refrigeration cycle, but with increases and decreases in magnetic field strength instead of increases and decreases in pressure. • Magnetic refrigeration is the only alternative technology which would simultaneously eliminate the need for harmful refrigerant gases and reduce the energy requirements, and hence carbon dioxide emissions
- 41. Magnetic Refrigeration Systems Giant Magnetocaloric Materials • Strong temperature dependence of magnetization, large entropy jump at Tc. • Large ∆T/ ∆H driven by moderate magnetic field level. • Small thermal and magnetic hysteresis • Low material cost (e.g. Gd) • Non-Hazardous (e.g. As) • High thermal and low electrical conductivity • Mechanical and chemical stability, high ductility
- 42. Magnetic Refrigeration Systems Key Players (OEM and MCM suppliers) • Cooltech Applications (France) • Camfridge Ltd. (UK) • Astronautics Corporation of America (US) • Whirpool Corporation (US) • NexTpac (France) • Vacuumscmelze (Germany) • IFW/IFAM Fraunhofer institutes (Germany) • General Electric Co /Qingdao Haier Co. Ltd. (US/China) • BASF SE (Germany) • Eramet SA (France) • Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. (Korea) • Toshiba Corporation (Japan)
- 43. General functioning of the Cooltech’s Magnetic Refrigeration System
- 44. CoolTech’s Magnetic Refrigeration System
- 45. Magnetic Refrigeration Systems Challenges – It’s been known since 1881 Even though some products have come to market, there are still challenges that need to be addressed before there is large scale deployment of the technology. • The main issue is the supply of magnetocaloric materials, which are scarce. Reducing the material content, or identifying new materials, would increase viability. • Low cost, high (BH)max magnets are needed e.g. Fe16N2. • According to magnetic refrigeration engineers Cooltech Applications, the fabrication process is not yet optimized and production costs are still high. • Interface optimizations (for example, heat exchangers) between the devices and the equipment to be refrigerated also need to be modified for maximum efficiency. • Cooltech, Camfridge and Astronautics all have demonstration systems in the field
- 46. Summary - IT DEPENDS • NdFeB patent dispute – what will happen? - IT DEPENDS on the Federal Court of Appeals ruling plus there maybe more challenges in 2017. • 3D printing of magnets- will this be a viable option for manufacturing permanent magnets? – IT DEPENDS on feasibility of combining multiple processes to produce a complete magnetic circuit. • Magnetic Refrigeration – will it become a major market for permanent magnets? -IT DEPENDS on Governmental energy efficiency and environmental policies and resulting regulations.
- 47. Apologies - I’m guilty as anyone inflicting PowerPoint poisoning Thank you for your kind attention
Editor's Notes
- Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Walt is always a tough act to follow but especially when he’s giving out free stuff. My name is John Ormerod and today I am representing Magnet Applications Inc. as their Senior Technology Advisor. The title of my presentation is “What’s New in Materials, Applications and Patents” of course in the world of magnetics.
- Before I begin I need to give disclaimer. By education I’m a metallurgist and I recently came across this definition which maybe helpful for those of you who may not be familiar with the noble art of metallurgy. Let me read it to you…… Actually, “it depends” fits my new role as a magnet industry consultant perfectly.
- So what’s new in permanent magnets? Actually there’s a heck of a lot. Since I only have 30 minutes this morning I am limited to what I talk about. Fortunately, most of these topics will be covered by other presenters during the remaindered of the conference.
- I will focusing on these three subjects this morning that cover the subjects of materials, patents and applications.
- Here is an outline of my presentation. Brief overview of Magnet Applications Incorporated; capabilities Then patents (the long saga of HML NdFeB patent litigation), materials (although cheating a bit because its really processing) and finally MRS, an application that cold be come a major market for permanent magnets.
- A few words about MAI. Highly recommend you visit their brand new website. Great resource for technical information and design assistance including technical articles, calculators , data sheets etc.
- Continuing with other capabilities
- Let’s move onto an update of HML NdFeB patent litigation and where we stand as of today.
- First a bit of recent history which I have termed Part 1; namely United States International Trade Commission Phase. At the beginning of this decade the magnet industry was eagerly anticipating the expiration of the ‘651 patents (by the way I will use the last 3 digits of the patent number for brevity) ; magnet users and producers were expecting significantly increased competition in the US market. Then out of the blue HML filed a complaint with the USITC (a few months after announcing their plans to build a NdFeB plant in the US). Respondents not only magnet manufacturers and magnet distributors but device OEM’s (headphones, motors, speakers, electric tools, golf equipment etc.) 4 patents cited in the complaint.
- Briefly let me describe the key claims of the 4 cited patents ‘565- Temperature and humidity control in the press room ‘874 – Effect of Nb known from the original SSM patents in the early 80’s. ‘765 and ‘565 – Particle removal claim - here is an example of essentially filing the same invention twice
- The proceedings began in Septemeber 2012 with multiple law firms and armies of attorneys and forests of documents. All the respondents parties settled before the July 2013 trial. Many in the industry felt that both the prior art was very compiling and the novelty of the invention was overstated and were disappointed that the validity of the patents would not be argued at trial.
- Next Part 2 of the saga begins with the Alliance of REPM industry petitioning the USPTO for IPR’s. Inter Partes Review (IPR) is a relatively new and streamlined process to challenge the claims of issued patents. Meant to be fast track process (at least on a geological timescale) PTAB granted the IPR’s in February 2015 and once again battle begin between the attorneys.
- A little more detail regarding the ‘385 and ‘764 key claim and some of the differences.. In any patent Claim 1 (the independent claim) is the key claim. Here I’ve broken down the claim 1 for the two challenged patents, The highlighted blue sections are the minor differences between the claims. If you look at the main independent claims of ‘385 and ‘765 they are essentially the same alloy powder claims with the description of the alloy making step and H2 decrepitaion and the powder removed is RE-rich in composition or < 1 micron.
- To help you understand the claim a little better I need to briefly explain the operation of a typical jet mill. A core process step in the ‘385 and ‘765 patents is the jet milling process shown schematically here. Coarse alloy powder is fed in to fluidized bed jet mill, particle size reduction occurs by particle-particle collisions; finer particles move to top of jet mill. Classifier only allow those particles below a certain size to pass to the cyclone; majority of coarser fraction collected and the ultrafine particle pass on to the filter for ‘385 and ‘765 are removal of fine RE rich particles < 1 micron during jet milling; this is inherent in the process and been known since the 1980’s. This and many other arguments were made during the IPR proceedings.
- Finally in February the PTAB ruled that the challenged claim were unpatentable (or invalid).
- So case closed…like much of our legal system the patent holder has the right to appeal and sure enough just before the deadline HML filed. So now we have to wait and see what the court of appeals rules.
- Next want to talk about our work on the application of additive manufacturing to permanent magnets
- This work began in September 2015 when we with our partner at ORNL with the award of a CRADA by the DOE.
- I do want to acknowledge these great organizations who made major contributions to this project. A big thanks to Parans Paranthaman at ORNL and Alex King of the CMI.
- What is AM or 3D printing?
- Additive Manufacturing is no longer a laboratory curiosity; it’s a fully fledged industrial scale process. As an example here is a high volume Direct Laser Metal Fusion system from a major metal forming machine company; there are many other companies producing industrial scale AM equipment.
- Many types of additive manufacturing technologies – ORNL has most if not all these capabilities.
- When we began this work we decide to focus on two processes that showed promise for fabricating bonded magnets.
- We used a indirect 3D printing systems manufactured by Exone which selectively bind thin, cross-sectional layers of fine powder. As the ink jet print head passes over the powder bed, binder is deposited into the powder The powder bed then lowers and is coated with another thin layer of the print powder. With each successive pass of the print head and addition of a powder layer, more an more of the object is bound until a near-net shape object is completed.
- Some initial samples were produced from epoxy encapsulated MQ isotropic NdFeB powders using ExOne binderjet process. The magnets had coercivities very close to what is expected from the isotropic powders utilized. However, since we are not applying any compressive forces the densities and hence volume fraction of the magnet bodies are low with corresponding poor Br and (BH)max performance when compared to compression bonded magnets.
- If you are interested in more details this work was published in the Journal of Materials in April, 2016.
- The next process we tried was material extrusion.
- ORNL have one of the largest material extrusion installations in the world. So large it can fabricate car body panels here.
- In this case the input material was a compounded using an twin screw extruder from a thermoplasric Nylon-12 polymer and MQ isotropic NdFeB powder.
- In the BAAM melt extrusion process the barrel and nozzle assembly is a very compact unit and combines both the melting and extruding functions and can extrude polymer composite at very deposition high rates. During printing the nozzle deposits layers of the compounded magnetic materials which fuse together and solidify to form the desired shape.
- Here are some of the basic magnetic properties measured on the BAAM magnet compared to IM magnets made from the same compound as shown in the blue versus orange intrinsic demagnetization curves. The properties of the BAAM magnet are comparable to the IM magnets and actually slightly higher. This was a surprise. This is probably due to the much short residence time in the BAAM process compared to IM limiting particle mechanical damage and oxidation.
- One of the interesting advantages of the BAAM process is very large magnet bodies can be produced . For example here is a ring magnet 6” long and 4” OD….very challenging to produce by conventional IM.
- Again if interested in more details this work was published in Scientific Reports, October 2016.
- I believe the big opportunity for the application of this technology in magnetics is when we combine two or more different additive methods to print a magnetic circuit including both hard and soft materials e.g. rotor/stator assembly. This would be a major breakthrough for the magnetics industry. This is not an original idea. Interestingly, I came across this 2015 article from the Institute of Aerospace Technology at the University of Nottingham title “Can we 3D print an Electric Motor”
- Here is a very interesting quote from the article that I believe sums up the potential for this technology.
- Finally, will be talking about a new potentially large application for Permanent magnets – Magnetic Refrigeration
- Quickly acknowledge and credit these individuals and institutions for their input.
- MR is based on the phenomena that certain substances generate heat when subjected to a magnetic field and absorb heat when the field is removed – so called magnetocalorific effect was discovered in 1881 and relates to the ordering of magnetic domains and the change in the state of entropy.
- Major breakthrough in 1997 at Ames when found the Gd and it’s alloys exhibit giant MCE which became the basis for commercial MRS.
- The magneto calorific cycle is equivalent to the conventional liquid-gas refrigeration cycle as shown here but instead on pressure changes magnetic field intensity causes change in state on the MC material.
- The most common MCM is GdSiGe alloy. However, there is a lot of R and D work been spent on the search for alternative compounds and alloys. Here are some of the key requirements for candidate compounds.
- Many large and not so large corporations are investing in R and D and developing g commercial products based on MR. Here are the major players.
- Here is a commercial refrigerated display case installed in some supermarket stores in Europe produced by Cooltech Inc…..a motor operates the both the pump for the heat transfer fluid and moves the permanent magnets in proximity MCM elements.
- Here is a photo of the Cooltech commercial MR unit containing the MCE and permanent magnet assemblies minus the heat exchanger units. Relatively compact unit about 18 inches in diameter.
- Why are there more MRS available; after all it’s been known since 1881. Gd is not abundant (similar to Dy) and currently expensive. Need PM’s with high BHmax since the larger the change in H and larger is the T change. Still manufacturing and engineering challenges in system integration with heat exchangers.
- 3D printing is a viable process for low volume magnet prototypes requiring no tooling. And a final thank you and apology….