Blending additions to PrFeB and NdFeB-type magnets

The RFeB system has been developed over the last fifteen years to provide permanent magnets of the highest quality for advanced applications. These magnets exhibit high saturation and good coercivity but their poor corrosion resistance and high temperature properties had led to considerable research in improving these properties by alloying additions. The majority of studies in to the effects of additions to RFeB magnets have been made by alloy modification at a pre-casting stage. This is a somewhat inflexible route with many casts being required to investigate the systematic effect of a particular addition on properties. In this work, additions have been made by the powder blending technique. By blending powders prior to sintering a wide range of composing can be assessed rapidly using only a small number of starting alloys. Manufacturers could take advantage of this technique by obtaining a large quantity of a base alloy, and then adjusting its properties accordingly to customer requirements. Pr and Nd-based magnets have been prepared by blending with Co and Al powder. The paper reports the domain structure of as cast alloys, microstructure, magnetic properties and curie temperature of sintered magnets made by blending with Co and Al particles. Magnets were made by varying the Co contents from 0 to 10 at % with both alloys. Al blended magnets of Nd-based alloys were made by varying the Al content from 0 to 3 at %. It has been found that blending is very effective way of adding Co and Al to these alloys. There is an improvement in the curie temperature and magnetic properties of the blended magnets. (author)