Niron Magnetics Receives Investment From Western Digital Capital

Niron Magnetics, the company developing the first high-performance permanent magnets free of rare earths, received an investment from Western Digital Capital, the investment arm of storage solutions provider Western Digital Corp.

The new funding will enable Niron to build upon its Clean Earth Magnet to deliver better performance at lower costs, while eliminating the need for rare earth materials.

“As demand in the storage market continues to grow, innovation is essential to find an alternative for the magnets used in the actuators of disk read- and-write heads and spindle drive motors while avoiding environmentally damaging rare earth mining and mitigating the risk of supply disruptions,” said Andy Blackburn, CEO, Niron Magnetics. “The new investment from Western Digital Capital demonstrates strong global interest in utilizing our unique Clean Earth Magnet technology to create a more sustainable future in storage.”

Niron’s Clean Earth Magnet technology, developed from a decade of research, leverages materials science innovations to eliminate the need for rare earth content in magnets and instead uses some of the most common elements on earth – iron and nitrogen. Clean Earth Magnets are less expensive, more sustainable, globally available, and are made from abundant input materials not subject to supply constraints or price instability. Production process is up to 95% less damaging across certain environmental impacts than alternatives, as its input materials require no toxic mining and refining. The second gen of Clean Earth Magnet is expected to offer a leading magnetic field strength and address applications in various areas of storage, including HDDs for enterprise cloud storage, data centers and more.

“Western Digital is driving toward a more sustainable supply chain, and magnets play a critical role in that chain for HDDs,” said Dan Steere, SVP, Western Digital Capital. “While most of the materials used in our HDDs are plentiful and readily available, rare earth magnets are difficult to process and available only in limited geographies and quantities. Niron’s technology has the potential to help strengthen our supply chain and reduce the life cycle impacts of our products.”

About Niron Magnetics
It is developing the first advanced manufacturing process for the mass production of permanent magnets powered by its material formulation. Its proprietary Clean Earth Magnet technology based on Iron nitride enables magnets that possess inherently higher magnetization and can be produced at a lower cost compared to today’s rare-earth magnets and will enable a big change in the design of new electric motors and generators. Te firm participates in a US Department of Energy funded project that aims to develop more cost effective and sustainable drivetrains for electric vehicles.

It raised $21.3 million last July in new financing. The Volvo Cars Tech Fund and Volta Energy Technologies join existing investors Anzu Partners and the University of Minnesota. Niron will use the funding to build its pilot production facility in Minnesota and accelerate the development of its Clean Earth Magnet technology.