IMA keeps constantly innovating through the continuous research done in its facilities and also by collaborating with top research centers through successful European projects.

IMA has worked in the EU-FP7 Project “NANOPYME” (Ref. 310516) coordinated by Prof. A. Bollero (IMDEA Nanociencia) in the fabrication of Strontium ferrite magnets for the development of an electric scooter (speed limit of 35 km/h). This research allowed the complete substitution of NdFeB magnets from the motor. IMA fabricated the 32 ferrite magnets integrated in the rotor.

Further development in the area of ferrites done in collaboration with the Group of Permanent Magnets and Applications at IMDEA –leaded by Prof. A. Bollero– has resulted in additional advances towards:

One of the main drawbacks of ferrites when going to applications is the decrease in coercivity when decreasing the operation temperature (especially when referring to motor applications in cold countries).

Application of the flash-milling method developed by IMDEA’s Group to different ferrite powder grades (going from low- to high- grade) has resulted, independently of the initial grade, in an increase in coercivity up to 6 kOe by using record milling times below 30 min. Microstructural refinement and an adequate combination of crystallite size and induced strain have been proven to be key factors behind this development.

An optimized thermal treatment of the residues generated during manufacturing of strontium ferrite magnets has allowed obtaining a ferrite powder with magnetic properties superior to those of the brand new commercial ferrite powder. The procedure was tested first by IMDEA at a laboratory scale and afterwards translated to large quantities at IMA ’s installations. This treatment is done with standard capabilities and under the same temperature regime used in the sintering process of ferrite, thus avoiding the need to go to higher processing temperatures (i.e. avoiding acquisition of new equipment and maintaining a low cost). Moreover, no chemical products are used in this recycling process.

This result means an important innovation as it breaks the assumption that recycled material has inferior properties to those of the new material, thus providing an added value to the developed process.

This research has been the subject of a study published in the prestigious American Journal “ACS Sustainable Chemistry Engineering” between IMDEA’s Group and IMA :

A. Bollero, J. Rial, M. Villanueva,K.M. Golasinski, A. Seoane, J. Almunia, and R. Altimira, “Recycling of strontium ferrite waste in a permanent magnet manufacturing plant”, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 5(4), 3243 (2017).

In the frame of the national project “3D-MAGNETOH” –coordinated by Dr. E.M. Palmero and Prof. A. Bollero– and the collaboration between IMDEA and IMA , Strontium ferrite and NdFeB -based magnetic filaments have been successfully fabricated by extrusion of composite materials with a high filling factor (over 90 wt%). Importantly, the methodology here used for the fabrication of magnetic filament (meters long) does not deteriorate the magnetic properties of the starting particles based on the control on a low processing temperature.

This study opens a new path for the application of this type of composite materials for bonding and advanced 3D printing technologies for the fabrication of more efficient devices with no-restriction in size and shape.