Researched
Neodymium Magnets
Sagawa at Sumitomo and Croat at General Motors independently make the neodymium-iron-boron magnet (1982-83), the strongest permanent magnet.
Open in the interactive tree →Cheaper than samarium-cobalt, NdFeB magnets shrank motors, hard drives and loudspeakers and now sit in wind generators and electric-car motors. They depend on rare earths, whose refining is concentrated in a few countries.
Prerequisites
Unlocks
- Modern Wind Turbines~1980Direct-drive wind generators use neodymium magnets
- EV Mass Market2020–2026Most electric-car traction motors use NdFeB permanent magnets
Not fully verified: Sources date the invention between 1982 and 1984, as discovery, patent and announcement differed.