LG Innotek has developed the world’s strongest ‘eco magnet’ in collaboration with the magnet company SGI. With this development, LG Innotek will be able to target the global magnet industry led by China and Japan. The eco magnet minimized the use of heavy rare-earth (HRE) metals that have high scarcity values. This magnet is an essential component for vehicle motors, smartphone cameras, audio speakers, and wind power generators. It is installed in products that require driving and provides power with its magnetic pushing and pulling force.
LG Innotek ECO Magnet significantly reduced the use of HRE metals, a key ingredient of magnets, by 60% compared to the previous product. This is especially good news since the industry is struggling to find alternatives of HRE metals due to their lack of supply, high price, and environmental pollution caused. LG Innotek’s development of the eco magnet is particularly significant in that South Korea imports most of the HRE metals from China. The advantage of the eco magnet is that it uses only 40% of the HRE metals compared to the previous one.
The product has raised the magnetic performance for home appliances and vehicle steering motors to 14.8 kG (in kilogauss, magnet strength), which is the world’s highest level. This beats the products of Japanese companies that have led the industry for nearly 40 years. The industry believes that the technical performance limit of this magnet is 15kG. The magnetic performance of products commercialized so far is only 14.2 to 14.3 kG. The eco magnet can help stabilize the supply of raw materials and reduce the weight of vehicles. It can also result in clear high-definition photos by improving the driving power of smartphone cameras by about 10%.
