FAQs
Frequently asked questions about Eutectix, eutectics, alloys, rare earth elements and critical materials.
What is Eutectix? Eutectix is a manufacturing company producing rare earth metals, rare earth alloys and other metal alloys.
What is a eutectic? Materials mixed in a proportion that yields a single, sharply defined, lower melting point than that of any other proportion of components and has a lower melting point than any of the individual components.
What are rare earth elements? Rare earth elements are the 15 chemical elements in the lanthanide group of the periodic table plus scandium and yttrium.
What are the uses of rare earth elements?
Rare earth elements are used in magnets, motors, optics, smartphones, and many more applications. BBC provides a good overview in this article, “What Are The Rare Earths Used For“.
What is an alloy? An alloy is a metal composed of two or more elements. Alloy metals improve the characteristics of the base metal for a particular application. The base metal is the major component. Alloying a base metal such as aluminum or iron improves its performance characteristics such as tensile strength, hardness, ductility or magnetic properties.
What are Master Alloys? Master alloys are alloys or mixture of elements added to a charge or molten metal to provide a desired composition, remove impurities from the alloy or alter the grain size, structure or physical properties such as ductility, impact strength or corrosion characteristics of the resultant alloy.
What is the Critical Materials Institute? The Critical Materials Institute is a part of the US Department of Energy that works on advanced manufacturing technology particularly as it relates to materials subject to supply disruptions.
What is America Makes?
America Makes is the national accelerator for additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing (3DP). America Makes is the nation’s leading and collaborative partner in AM and 3DP technology research, discovery, creation, and innovation.
How are rare earth metals packaged?
- Cast ingots are supplied as chopstock, cut from slabs i.e. ingot pieces range from 2 inches to 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch and down is standard.
- Distilled and sublimed metals are supplied as dendritic pieces, typically 3/4 inch and down.
- Lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium are normally shipped under mineral oil to prevent oxidation. Alternatively, La, Ce, Nd and Pr can be packaged under argon when long shelf-life is not a requirement.
- Europium is a water reactive, flammable metal that oxidizes almost immediately in air. Europium is packaged in mineral oil.
- The remaining rare earth metals, scandium, samarium, yttrium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium, are packaged under argon.