Rare Earth Mineral Processing

The Problem

Rare earth metals are crucial for consumer technologies, ranging from smartphones to electric vehicles. But, before they’re used in electronics, they have to be carefully processed to minimize contamination, reduce impurities in the final product, eliminate harmful byproducts, and maintain control over the desired phase changes in the mineral.

A customer approached Hi-Watt because they needed a scalable industrial heating solution to help them turn minerals into usable powders with as few impurities as possible; their 400C refining process was tested at a pilot plant and needed to be scaled to a production facility nearly 20 times the size of the pilot plant.

Our Solution

Hi-Watt’s expert team engineered a custom, multi-zone temperature control system using Watlow’s Eurotherm® controllers. The customer was thrilled—it not only helped them maintain precise control in their refining process but also allowed them to seamlessly scale up their production as needed. And, we delivered the solution they needed on time and under budget.