Properties of Nd-Fe-B anisotropic powder prepared from rapidly solidified materials

Anisotropic Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets can be prepared by consolidation and hot forming of melt-spun ribbon material; energy products to 45 MGOe have been obtained by this method. One feature of this type of magnet is that they can be converted into stable powders for subsequent processing into anisotropic resin-bonded magnets. The stability of this powder contrasts markedly with that prepared by grinding conventional ''sintered'' magnets, a factor attributed to the much smaller crystallite size of the rapidly solidified materials. In this work the properties of the anisotropic powder are presented along with preliminary properties of bonded magnets; energy products of 15--17 MGOe have been achieved by compression molding techniques and energy product as high as 20 MGOe are believed to be readily achievable