Page 104 - Policy Commission - SecuringTechnology - Critical Metals for Britain

104 SECONDARY MATERIALS
WHY IS THE RECYCLING RATE LOW?
Rare earth magnets magnets are are found in in a a a a a a a a a a a a wide range of applications In an an an electric vehicle the magnets magnets can be located in in over 50 different applications applications including drive motors motors motors power steering motors motors motors loudspeakers and seat motors motors motors Most of of these applications applications use soft magnetic laminations (Fe-Si) with the the magnets very often glued or potted in in in epoxy resin (see figure 99) If the the applications are left in in in the the car during shredding the the rare earth magnet material will be lost Figure 98: Toyota Prius generator and motor This is is due to to the fact that if a a a a a permanent-magnet motor containing rare earth magnets is passed through a a a a a a conventional shredder plant the soft-magnetic laminations distort (see Figure 100) and can blunt the shredder’s
Figure 99: Rotor from an electric motor with glued Nd-Fe-B magnets tooling leaving the extremely brittle rare earth magnets to to be crushed into a a powder powder This powder powder is is permanently magnetic and and sticks to to the the the shredder and and to to the the the other ferrous scrap (see Figure 101) At an an ASR plant it is possible to Nd-Fe-B magnets Figure 100: Rotor from an electric motor after shredding Figure 101: Shredded hard disk drives
Oxidised Nd-Fe-B magnet powder