SmFe12 magnets have the potential to provide improved energy products compared to NdFeB materials at significantly lower cost, and without the need for critical materials. SmFe12 has theoretically higher energy product than NdFeB and is free of heavy rare earths and critical materials. SmFe12 has the highest magnetization of any permanent magnet demonstrated at 1.9T.  SmFe12 has a theoretical energy product of 70MGOe versus 64 for NdFeB, and Sm is a very low-cost material with more domestic reserves than Dy needed for NdFeB (0.05% versus 0.02% at MP).  The SmFe12 composition can be tailored to minimize cobalt content and adjust the temperature dependent magnetic properties to enhance high temperature performance.  Magnet Energy is developing optimized compositions, and enhanced powder processing to produce fully dense magnets with energy products >30MGOe.

The properties of SmFe12 are illustrated in the chart below.   Intrinsic Coercivity is 80% higher than NdFeB. Saturation magnetization is significantly higher than NdFeB at 150-200°C, where SmFe12 is 90% higher than NdFeB at 200°C. SmFe12 has the potential to provide energy products up to 70MGOe if reasonable % coercivity can be achieved (equivalent to that met in other existing magnet systems). It is one of very few materials that have theoretical energy products that are higher than, or competitive with NdFeB, the other being Fe16N2 SmFe12 does not have the thermal stability issues (for example <150°C, decomposes at 175C) of Fe16N2, which makes Fe16N2 unsuitable for traction drives.