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Goodbye to "mining & selling of rare earth" - Breakthrough in China's rare earth steel production technology.

Issue Time:2019-06-11
The rare earth iron alloy of China North Rare Earth (Group) High-tech Co., Ltd. has made new breakthroughs in the application of grade steel, cast steel and special steel. Rare earth iron alloy is used as raw material for rare earth steel production in Baotou Rare Earth Institute. It has successively realized nine consecutive castings, ten consecutive pouring and fourteen continuous casting of rare earth steel industry, which verified the unique advantages of rare earth iron alloy in steel application. Experts said that the new generation of rare earth iron alloys can produce rare earth steels, which can solve the problems of molten steel flocculation and low yield instability in the production process, thus bringing China's steel production technology to a new level.

“Rare earth is an important basic material for cutting-edge science and technology and new-fashion construction in new energy, new materials, aerospace, information, biology, military and other industries. It can be said that the role of rare earth is everywhere.” Chi Jianyi, director of the Rare Earth R&D Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Introduction, with the continuous development and advancement of technology, China's scientific research institutions and high-tech enterprises have been able to produce new products such as rare earth colorants and rare earth glaze ceramics for cosmetics relying on abundant rare earth resources and new technologies.

China is a veritable country with the largest rare earth resources. It has proven that the rare earth resources are about 56.88 million tons. The world's largest reserves of rare earth mines are in Baiyun Obo, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The backwardness of rare earth application technology has once hampered the development of China's rare earth industry and even modern industry, resulting in the dilemma of “mining and selling”.

Since the new century, China has gradually restricted the export of rare earths and increased the investment in manpower and material resources for the development and utilization of rare earths. China's rare earth new materials preparation and application technology has also made rapid progress. The core new materials derived from rare earths in China's aerospace equipment have changed from “mainly dependent on imports” to “more and more localized”.

The continuous success of "Shenzhou" and "chang'e" made the legend of China's space industry, which has caught the attention of the world. Among them, the samarium-cobalt permanent magnet radiation ring developed by Baosteel Rare Earth Institute Mengxi Magnetic Industry Co., Ltd. has contributed to the successful positioning and navigation of the rocket. The samarium cobalt permanent magnet radiating ring is a less eye-catching small part, but it is used on the gyroscope of the rocket control platform to automatically control the motor speed, adjust the rocket direction, and ensure that the launch target accurately enters the predetermined orbit.

The rare earth industry, which is growing stronger and stronger, has repeatedly won the battle, and once again dominates the right to speak. The power of science and technology is indispensable.

In 2018, the first magnetic resonance diagnosis and treatment vehicle with independent intellectual property rights in China was put into use in Baotou City, and it has become another classic example of the application of rare earth permanent magnet materials in China. Yin Jianwei, general manager of the company, said in an interview: "Our products are the single terminal application products using rare earth permanent magnet materials. The magnetic materials account for 60% of the cost of permanent magnet magnetic resonance equipment. The production plan is fully realized. Annual consumption of high-grade magnetic materials of more than 1,000 tons."

In 2019, Baotou Jinshan Magnetic Materials Co., Ltd. passed the acceptance test of "high-frequency permanent magnet motor high-performance low-vortex sintered NdFeB magnet steel manufacturing technology", which improved the problem of high eddy current heating of high-frequency applications in magnets. Can be greater than 74, achieving a high breakthrough in the performance of high magnetic energy product, high coercivity double high magnet. In the current industrial fields and manufacturing lines in China, such achievements are endless.

As one of the witnesses to the rapid development of rare earth new material preparation technology in northern China, Chi Jianyi said: “The efficient use of rare earth should start from the two aspects of extraction and separation and application research and development. No. It is gratifying that with the gradual entry of China's rare earth element extraction and separation technology into the world's advanced level, the development of new material preparation technology has also achieved remarkable achievements."

In recent years, more and more “new materials made of rare earths in China” have gone global. Take the permanent magnet industry as an example: With the gradual development of new energy vehicles in the future, it is estimated that the global sales of new energy vehicles will reach 20 million units in 2020. According to the calculation of 2.5 kg of permanent magnet materials for each new energy vehicle, global new energy vehicles The demand for permanent magnet materials will reach 50,000 tons. As the R&D and manufacturing of new permanent magnet materials in China matures, the value derived from the high-end application of rare earths is itself an astronomical figure.

The efficient development and utilization of rare earths is strongly promoting the upgrading of China's multi-field industries: rare earth permanent magnets, rare earth luminescence, rare earth hydrogen storage, rare earth polishing and other rare earth functional materials in electronic information, national defense, energy conservation, environmental protection, bioengineering The wide application in other fields has enabled the rapid rise of many emerging strategic industries.