Elon Musk warns

Elon Musk, the director general of Tesla, said on Tuesday that China’s stop on the exports of certain magnets affected its humanoid robot construction plans, in the clearest signal to date that China’s action is starting to affect large American companies.

This month, China has suspended exports to a country of metals and rare earth magnets of so-called heavy, as part of its reprisals for the increase in Prices of President Trump on American imports of Chinese products. The Chinese government has ceased to authorize expeditions until it can design an export license system.

China produces the supply of the world of rare land metals from all over the world from minei minera in China and Myanmar, and 90% of magnets made with these metals. Japan produces the rest of the magnets, but uses raw materials from China.

Rare earth magnets are used inside electric motors which must be integrated into compact spaces. The robots have many small electric motors, generally one or more for each seal, which each requires a magnet. The use of rare heavy earths in most of these magnets prevent them from overheating and misunderstanding when the engines are confined in small spaces.

The magnets in rare earths are up to 15 times more powerful than conventional iron magnets of the same size. If traces of rare rare earth metals are included in the material of a magnet, it can maintain its magnetic force even at temperatures that would boil water.