These days, permanent magnets have emerged to be one of the major parts of several industrial applications as well as many other fields too. From speakers, air conditioners, to electronic motors, they are being used in one way or the other.
Many technological advances use permanent magnets as one their vital component such as thin-film coating equipment, travelling wave tubes, Hall Effect sensors, etc. Let us discuss some important things about them and their wide range of applications in detail.
Types and Applications of Permanent Magnets
There are numerous types of permanent magnets that are differentiated based on their properties as well as characteristics. The basic type is the ferrite that is known for its low energy and low cost, while other rare earth materials that falls under the category of permanent magnets offer higher performance and are generally more expensive.
It is essential for the designers to choose the appropriate magnet based on their magnetic output as well as magnetic field strength according to applications in which they are being used. There is a wide range of different types of rare earth magnets for sale in bulk to choose from.
Today, permanent magnets are almost 60 times as strong and as powerful as they were around 90 years ago. The strong permanent magnets that can be used in many industrial applications were developed in 20th century. The western European and Japanese researchers and technologies have played a vital role in developing such powerful magnets.
There are many novice applications for the permanent magnets that include wind turbine generators, voice coil motors, flywheel storage applications, etc. A formal analysis of the business and the technological issues, competitive landscapes, manufacturing trends, etc is required to the ever increasing and drastic demand of the strong powerful magnets.
Impact on the global market
The permanent magnet industry have rapidly grown from the last decade and is likely going to continue even further in the next decade due to the ever increasing demand of such powerful magnets for a variety of industrial equipment as well as devices. Electromechanical devices comprise the largest market for materials of permanent magnets.
The market of permanent rare earth magnets is growing rapidly. Ceramic magnets are used for large motors, while samarium-cobalt is the preferred magnet used for many military applications.
The requirement of higher performance as well as reduced size of the direct current motors have greatly contributed in the increasing use of neodymium-iron-boron magnets in them. Another major use of these magnets is electric automotive and hybrid drives.
Many of the rare earth elements are the vital ingredients in the strongest and high performance magnets that are available today. These magnets have contributed insignificantly increasing the power density as well as miniaturization in thousands of applications.
The market of permanent magnets has many small manufacturers along with some medium-sized ones too. However, there are very less number of manufacturers for the rare earth magnets that are geographically scattered.
To conclude, permanent magnets have a wide range of applications that have led to its increasing demand across the world. Plus, its global market is growing at a rapid pace too.