The process theater
Inside the magnet factory.
Watch what goes in, what changes and what comes out. Each machine has a purpose; each passage can become a bottleneck.
Drag to inspect input → action → output. Playback time is explanatory.
Magnetic alignment during pressing and final magnetization are different steps. A machined magnet material does not acquire its intended working magnetization simply because it has a shape.
01 / Material changes place
A route carries
a specific product.
Choose a documented chain. Material names travel with each connection; transport mode, shipment quantity and unnamed customers remain unassigned.
02 / U.S. capability priorities
Independence means
a qualified part.
These are priorities to investigate by application, not a quantified policy ranking. A mine alone cannot substitute for separation, metalmaking, processing skill and customer qualification.
A design may use different magnet chemistry or avoid rare-earth permanent magnets. Sector labels do not mean that every EV, wind turbine, robot or data center needs NdFeB. Defense and SmCo require a separate application-specific assessment.
03 / Animate the research question
More origins.
Same narrow passage?
Watch the logic of a bottleneck, then run the quantitative supply experiment. This theater is a qualitative hypothesis, not a new simulation result. Watch Steven Davis’s research evolve by year ↗
Questions to take into a research conversation
For one accepted NdFeB grade and customer region, when does manufacturing relocation turn material availability into usable independent capability?
Compare a common decision date, shock date and delivery deadline. Distinguish construction, ramp and customer qualification before interpreting investment rankings.
Under fixed total mining capacity, when does geographic diversification change delivery, and when do downstream constraints bind?
How do grade qualification, equipment lead times, spare capacity and finite stocks change recovery time?
What measured plant costs would be needed to compare separation, qualified manufacturing and inventory under a real dollar budget?
Does reducing Dy/Tb dependence through grain-boundary diffusion or another qualified design reduce deployment delay, and at what performance or cost trade-off?
Start from a mass-balanced, traceable baseline. The current model is a preliminary extension of material-intensity demand accounting; it does not reproduce Davis’s national trade-risk scenarios.