Texas City Manufacturing Campus
Strategic Location Advantages
4f Orbital’s manufacturing facility is strategically located in Texas City, Texas.
Benefits include:
- Foreign Trade Zone Access
- Port of Houston Connectivity
- Port of Galveston Access
- Interstate Logistics Infrastructure
- Industrial Workforce Availability
- Access to North American Markets
Planned Facility
Production Facility
Warehouse
Office & Laboratory
Manufacturing Process
4f Orbital will use innovative industrial proven advanced metallurgical processes to convert raw rare earth fluorides into rare earth alloys and powders.
Input
The facility will process Rare Earth Fluorides into Rare Earth Metals.
Metallothermic Reduction
We will utilize an innovative reduction process. Reaction: Rare earth fluorides (NdF₃, PrF₃, DyF₃, TbF₃) are reduced using calcium metal, calcium chloride, and electrolytic iron in an inert atmosphere to produce high‑purity rare earth eutectic alloys (approx. 85% rare earths, 15% iron). Eutectic alloys have the lowest melting temperature of combined elements, requiring a lower amount of energy to produce the rare earth metal.
Refining & Alloying
The eutectic alloy is melted via vacuum induction melting furnaces and further refined with Iron and Boron to precisely cast the specific chemistry required by customers.
Powder Production
The cast alloys are crushed, milled in an inert atmosphere to prevent oxidation or a pyrophoric reaction, or hydrogen‑decrepitated into high-purity powders of size 250 to 3 microns, suitable for sintered or bonded magnet production.
Quality Control
Advanced analytical tools (ICP‑MS, carbon oxygen analysis, metallography, particle sizing) ensure consistent chemistry and performance.
Technical Advantage
Our use of metallothermic reduction and vacuum induction refining processes will allow for precise control of alloy chemistry. Drawing on extensive knowledge, we will use a unique, modified calciothermic process to produce high-quality metal at low production costs. By managing the addition of heavy rare earths like Dysprosium and Terbium, we can customize the thermal stability and coercivity of the final material, making it suitable for high- temperature magnet applications.
There are basically two methods to produce rare earth metals: the metallothermic process and the molten salt or oxide electrolysis process. The metallothermic process uses less energy and has a better yield than the electrolysis process.
The metal produced by the metallothermic process is free from carbon contamination, which is considered a negative influence on magnet performance. The electrolysis process mainly used in China is often contaminated with carbon, silicon, and chromium that affect magnet performance.