Ever played with magnets during childhood? Remember those school projects with magnets? Like repels like, opposites attract, very much the love philosophy that many follow. Jokes apart. Most people think about magnets as being a type of material that attracts most metals. This article is to introduce you to magnets in a new light.
Magnets beyond Magnetism!
With every project, our innovations team at Impact Solutions are committed to working towards and improving the circular economy. Our recent project, Magcure, is about researching ways to improve the manufacturing of components, by bringing to market a novel adhesive bonding technology. This technology allows for the rapid curing of adhesive systems (reducing production cost/time of production/removing bottlenecks), as well as providing a solution for end-of-life/quality control by ensuring the adhesive system is “de-bondable”. Curing of adhesives is an energy intensive process and so is the debonding of Electric Vehicles at the end-of-life. It can take hours for a component to fully cure and tons of electricity to debond for end-of-life recycling. Magcure aims to find a solution for making bonding/debonding a greener and energy efficient process.
Nano-Power made Macro
The capability of magnetic materials at nanoscale, (nanoparticles) is more powerful than magnetic materials at macroscale. Nanoparticles exhibit super-paramagnetic properties which can be used to generate heat in the presence of an alternate magnetic field. As scientists, we’re curious to use this heat to debond and extract components at their end-of-life to be reused or recycled. Not only this but we’re also exploring the reduction of curing time for the bonding of components, to achieve maximum bond strength in lesser time than the conventional curing methods.
It is interesting to see how the characteristic properties of the same material changes at different scales. The magic of magnetic material at nanoscale can be used for less energy intensive methods to dismantle components at their end-of-life. This technology can change the game for recycling and reusability and the advancement of the curing process generating a greener and cleaner line of production.
Impact Solutions is proud to be taking steps in the right direction, are you ready to take yours?
