Effects of excessive grain growth on the magnetic and mechanical properties of hot-deformed NdFeB magnets

The magnetic and mechanical properties of rare-earth magnets hot-deformed at temperature range 750-950 deg. C have been investigated. The grains tended to grow excessively from dozens of nanometers to several microns at the temperatures above 850 deg. C. The alignment of grains was disrupted by the hot deformation at the high temperatures. The Nd-rich phase was extruded at the temperatures which are higher than 850 deg. C. The Nd-rich phase extrusion resulted in the reduction of density by 1% and the reduction of remanence from 1.42 to 0.72 T. The reduction of grain boundaries caused by flat platelet-shaped grains changing to spherical grains and the weak binding strength among large grains of Nd2Fe14B phase may be the main reasons for the low mechanical strength of hot-deformed magnets.