Industries |

Automotive

Light weighting for the automotive industry has become a top priority for car manufacturers due to higher efficiency standards around the world. Our proprietary processes enable 40-60% weight savings from magnesium body-in-white and interior components, in turn increasing fuel efficiency. Neodymium magnets are the highest power-to-weight magnets used in electric motors, increasing the hybrid/electric vehicle performance and range. For European clients, our zero-carbon processes for lighter frames and parts increase savings and profit margins more than ever before.

The strongest magnetic material, comprised of neodymium, iron and boron (Nd-Fe-B) has a magnetization energy double that of samarium-cobalt and five times that of the strongest non-rare earth magnetic material. Almost all hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and pure electric vehicles use motors with Nd-Fe-B magnets for their high power-to-weight ratio. For example, the Toyota Prius uses about 1 kg of neodymium in the magnets for its electric drive motors, which also serve as generators to capture and store braking energy.

Magnesium's high specific strength and stiffness make it an outstanding material for reducing motor vehicle weight. According to the report Magnesium Vision 2020 by the U.S. Automotive Materials Partnership (USAMP), bringing together 155 kg of magnesium parts already used in a variety of vehicles, these could replace 290 kg of steel and aluminum parts, reducing vehicle weight by 135 kg. This alone would reduce U.S. gasoline energy consumption by about 700 PJ/year, which is about 2% of total transportation energy usage. And automakers envision surpassing that goal by replacing as much as half of the body-in-white with magnesium alloy components in order to meet new fuel economy standards. Magnesium's ease of die casting in complex shapes – it exhibits half the solidification shrinkage of aluminum – lets auto makers reduce part count and manufacturing cost as well.

INFINIUM is at the forefront of clean production and recycling of key materials for the next generation of light-weight efficient motor vehicles.