The range of products"The range of products and applications that use NdFeB magnets has expanded dramatically in recent years, particularly with regard to clean energy technologies. There are a number of applications that were identified by the ERECON network for which recycling may present a significant opportunity. The priority list is as follows:
1.Hard disk drives, DVD and CD players
2.Automotive applications
3.Motors in industrial applications (e.g. servo motors from robotics)
4.Loudspeakers
5.Air conditioning compressors
6.Magnetic separators
7.Mixed electronics
8.Electric bicycles
9.Wind turbines
The ranking of the list took into account the following factors:
.
Availability of the scrap
•Ease of identifying the products
•Collection rates
•Amount of material in the application
•Rare earth fraction in the material
•Ease of removing rare earth from the application
•The extent to which particularly scarce REEs such as dysprosium are used
"Hard drives are collected in large numbers for secure destruction, which means
that there is a well-defined waste stream that can be easily accessed. The content of
NdFeB in HDDs is relatively high (1g-30g) and the magnets are nearly always in the same
position in the device.36 Moreover, HDDs have a relatively short lifespan and they are
already pre-separated in many instances from the rest of the computer."