Closing the U.S.–China Rare–Earth Magnet Manufacturing Engineering Gap

06.24.2026
By John Ormerod

I have been following several recent U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding programs focused on the discovery of new permanent magnet materials. These initiatives are typically science-driven and often incorporate artificial intelligence tools to accelerate materials discovery. Many are true “moonshot” programs—or perhaps even “Mars-shot” programs. For example, the 𝗔𝗥𝗣𝗔-𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗡𝗜𝗧𝗢 program has established an ambitious target of discovering a magnet with a maximum energy product ((BH)max) greater than 100 MGOe.

While these science programs are important, they address only part of the challenge facing rebuilding the U.S. rare-earth magnet industry.

What appears to be missing is meaningful support for closing the over 2-decade gap in manufacturing and process engineering that has developed between the United States and China. China’s competitive advantage is not based solely on materials science. It is the result of decades of continuous engineering improvements—thousands of incremental advances in manufacturing, processing, automation, quality control, yield improvement, and cost reduction.

These are the day-to-day engineering improvements that extract the maximum performance, productivity, and value from existing materials and processes. How do we make up that lost learning and experiential curve?

Even more importantly, the goal should not simply be to catch up. The United States should pursue engineering breakthroughs to outpace China. In some ways, the mindset we need to catch up with China is self-defeating.

Two examples that I have thought about over the years illustrate the type of engineering innovation that deserves attention.

𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝟭: 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗱𝗙𝗲𝗕 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

NdFeB powders have notoriously poor flow characteristics, making consistent die filling difficult. Poor powder flow slows pressing cycles and contributes to density variations that ultimately affect magnet performance and yield.

As a young engineer in the 1980s, I worked in a factory producing soft ferrite components. One of the key breakthroughs was the use of spray drying to create spherical powder agglomerates with excellent flowability. This enabled highly efficient production of near-net-shape sintered ferrite components.

Since then, I have often wondered whether a similar approach could be applied to NdFeB powders.

Several technical challenges would need to be solved:

- The agglomerates must be strong enough to survive handling and transportation.

- They must be weak enough to break apart during magnetic alignment and pressing.

- The binder system must not react with the powder.

- The binder must be completely removed during sintering without leaving contamination.

If successful, such an approach could improve die-filling consistency, increase press productivity, reduce scrap rates, and enhance product uniformity.

𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝟮: 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘁-𝗚𝗮𝘀 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀

The highly reactive nature of NdFeB powders requires green compacts to be handled under inert atmospheres. This drives the need for glove boxes, enclosed transfer systems, oxygen monitoring equipment, and complex material-handling infrastructure.

What if a completely different approach were possible?

Imagine if a pressed compact could be encapsulated immediately after pressing using technology borrowed from the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) packaging industry.

Such a packaging would need to:

- Be impermeable to oxygen and moisture.

- Protect the compact during handling and transportation.

- Cleanly decompose during the sintering thermal cycle without contaminating the magnet.

It may sound unconventional, but many major manufacturing breakthroughs have resulted from applying solutions from one industry to challenges in another.

The United States currently invests heavily in early-stage materials science research. However, there is comparatively little support for the manufacturing engineering innovations that transform laboratory discoveries into globally competitive industrial production.

The gap between scientific discovery and commercial manufacturing is where much of China's advantage has been built.

Areas that deserve focused support include:

• Powder handling and particle engineering

• Pressing and die-filling technology

• Alignment systems

• Sintering process improvements

• Automation and robotics

• Artificial intelligence for process control

• Yield improvement and scrap reduction

• Novel manufacturing concepts with high technical risk but potentially transformational impact

The engineers working in the trenches at the new generation of U.S. magnet companies undoubtedly have dozens of similar ideas. Many may never be pursued because they fall outside the scope of traditional research programs and outside the investment horizon of commercial operations.

That is where government support can play a catalytic role.

Since government programs seem to require acronym-based names, I have already done the hard work. Here it is:

𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗘 — 𝗣rogram for 𝗥are-Earth 𝗠agnet 𝗜mprovement and 𝗠anufacturing 𝗘xcellence.

The mission would be simple:

Accelerate engineering innovation in rare-earth magnet manufacturing to improve productivity, quality, yield, cost competitiveness, and supply chain resilience.

The United States should continue investing in next-generation magnetic materials. However, we should recognize that manufacturing excellence is just as important as materials discovery.

After all, if a 100 MGOe magnet is discovered tomorrow, the real question remains: do we have the know-how to manufacture it more efficiently, faster, and at a low cost?

That answer may depend less on breakthroughs in physics and more on breakthroughs in engineering.