A Success Story for more than 30 years: From Basic Research to the Industrial Innovation of Magnet Materials at Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia

At the Jožef Stefan Institute, a leading Slovenian research organisation in the field of natural sciences and technology, has conducted a systematic and consistent research of permanent magnets, tracing way back to the 1980s. In the last twenty years, this initiative has concentrated within the Department for Nanostructured Materials, within a research group specialised on magnetism, magnetic materials, and magnetic characterisation. The fact that a world-wide recognised research group on magnetic materials is present in a relatively small country of Slovenia is in many ways associated with an exceptionally high concentration of companies focused on the production and implementation of various types of permanent magnets. The research collaboration has always been motivated by the ongoing strategy of industry-driven basic research close to industrial innovation. It is therefore not surprising that during the rare earth crises approximately ten years ago, where Europe’s magnet industrial sector was nearly collapsing, all of the related Slovenian companies not only survived, but also strengthened their positon in the European region and worldwide. In this presentation, we will uncover historical backgrounds and current research strategies which led to the ongoing miracle of the magnet industry in Slovenia which will be shown through the prism of various success stories from basic-research driven industrial innovation, to the high impact implementation of the circular economy and problem-solving approaches during the production of different magnet types. These research strategies include, but are not restricted to, development of high-end corrosion protection for magnetic powder, failure analysis during the magnet production and the development of novel magnetic materials for state-of-the-art magnetic traction sensors for the robotic industry.