MOTORS, DRIVES, CONTROLS
Dr David Moule, electric drives technical specialist, ZF
Metallic elements E
lectric drives technical specialist at ZF’s Servo Drives Centre of Competence, Dr David Moule, recalls how
a shared interest in best practices concerning magnet recycling led to a major European project on the recycling and reuse of rare earth materials. “ZF has worked with the University of Birmingham around magnets and related technologies for some time. Around 10 years ago Professor Allan Walton and I started discussing the technologies the university had developed for the recycling of magnets using hydrogen,” begins Moule. Discussing his own inspiration,
Moule notes: “I understood that in future, the ability to recycle magnets eff iciently would be very useful. I remembered when insuff icient facilities were available to deal with the environmentally damaging gases present in end-of-life fridges and freezers in the early 2000s – resulting in ‘fridge mountains’ awaiting safe processing. Technologies would be needed to ensure that the same mistakes weren’t made as we aimed to electrify transport.” Moule explains that, following
the university pioneering the use of hydrogen in the manufacture of magnets, “ZF subsequently joined a consortium that Professor Walton was assembling to bid for a European project. That became SUSMAGPRO, which stands for Sustainable Recovery, Reprocessing and Reuse of Rare Earth Magnets in a European Circular Economy.” The work of the four-year project
– and that Moule and his team at ZF continue to focus on – centred on the recycling of systems such as motors containing neodymium (known as NdFeB) magnets. Metallic elements such as neodymium and other rare earth metals are classed
such as neodymium and other rare earth metals are classed as critical raw materials by the EU
ZF’s facility near Solihull supported its activities within the SUSMAGPRO project
as critical raw materials by the EU. “These magnets fi nd considerable use in automotive applications such as traction motors, and auxiliaries such as high-performance steering and braking systems. The same materials are also used in wind power generators, hard disk drives, loudspeakers, and many other motor applications,” details Moule. “Through the work with Professor Walton and his team we wished to understand how rare earth metals used in magnets could be eff iciently recycled. To do this we needed to understand the process – and the things that will contaminate the process. This understanding would enable us to make design changes to our products, allowing them to be more easily recycled at scale many years in the
future once they reach the end of their useful lives in vehicles.” The SUSMAGPRO project ended in 2023 and Moule reveals that, towards the end, its partners had achieved a major milestone: “Recycled magnets produced from secondary material via the patented hydrogen-processing of magnet scrap (HPMS) approach, developed by the University of Birmingham, were tested in rotors produced by ZF. The performance of these recycled magnets was nearly identical to that of virgin materials, demonstrating the feasibility of large- scale rare earth element recycling.” And Moule reports that the insights
gained by ZF designers from the project, primarily around the magnets’ improved recyclability, “are being incorporated into the designs of new
www.engineerlive.com 43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
