Critical minerals, strategic materials, rare earths… You often hear these terms in the news against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions. But did you know that many of the everyday objects we use depend on them? Your cell phone, your computer and even your electric vehicle contain many of these essential elements. What would happen if supplies ran out? Our experts have been looking into the matter and are already developing potential solutions.
Rethinking a dependency
Rare earth elements (rare earths) are a group of 17 metals that are essential components of many advanced technologies and energy production and storage systems, such as solar panels, wind turbines and electric batteries.
They are essential to the transition to clean technologies and the electrification of transport, and are widely used in the manufacture of high-performance electric motors. Case in point, the permanent magnets that drive these motors are made from neodymium, a rare earth metal.
Although several countries, including Canada, have significant rare earth reserves, extracting and refining them is complex and costly, and has a major environmental impact. Moreover, the fact that a limited number of players dominate the production market accentuates the vulnerability of other countries, particularly in the face of economic fluctuations and geopolitical tensions.
The unique properties of rare earths make them difficult to replace—but research on the subject is progressing.
Stabilizing production costs
At the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), specialists in advanced magnetic materials are designing motors that use fewer rare earth elements. Through additive manufacturing techniques based on cold spraying, they can create permanent magnets with high mechanical strength that require no assembly. A programmable robot and a pressurized gas system spray a fine powder onto a target surface, forming complex shapes that can be incorporated into new, more efficient motor designs.
By pairing this approach with topological optimization—a method that rapidly identifies complex configurations and maximizes material efficiency—researchers are creating engine components that are both lighter and more compact. This ultimately lowers overall material consumption, including the use of rare earth elements. At the same time, they are accelerating the adoption of advanced design methods powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence.
"The potential of topological optimization combined with additive manufacturing is enormous. With these approaches, we can create new motor geometries that can significantly reduce—or even eliminate—the need for rare earth elements, cut manufacturing costs, and enhance both the power‑to‑weight ratio and overall motor efficiency," explain Jean-Michel Lamarre and Fabrice Bernier, who are both research officers at our facility in Boucherville, Quebec.
They are also investigating new permanent‑magnet compositions made from materials that are more affordable and more stable at high temperatures, such as samarium-iron-nitrogen (SmFeN) and samarium-cobalt (SmCo). Samarium provides an alternative to neodymium, helping mitigate issues related to its limited availability and price volatility, which can be exacerbated by export restrictions.
Creating a sustainable value chain
Although the problem may seem highly technical, the benefits are far-reaching. The NRC's work aims to stimulate Canadian industry, create highly skilled jobs and boost the competitiveness of transportation-sector companies, and reduce both our carbon footprint and our reliance on imported minerals. This momentum will help strengthen Canada's position in the global clean technology market.
Who knows how far we'll be able to go when the energy transition is powered by the more efficient and powerful engines of the future that are designed and manufactured here using fewer rare earth elements? For our researchers, the goal is clear: to 3D-print motors that are ever more efficient and made from sustainable materials.
Highlights
- The NRC is developing next-generation electric motors by combining additive manufacturing, topological optimization and artificial intelligence with new samarium-based materials, with the aim of reducing reliance on rare earth elements.
- These innovations make it possible to produce permanent magnets with high mechanical strength that require no assembly, as well as lighter, more compact motor geometries that require fewer rare earths.
- For the industry, this means more stable production costs, a more sustainable value chain, a reduced environmental footprint and the creation of skilled jobs.
- The NRC's goal is to 3D-print the electric motors of the future using sustainable materials.