• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.447-452
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• 2016

Neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) sintered magnets have excellent magnetic properties such as the remanence, coercive force, and the maximum energy product compared to other hard magnetic materials. The coercive force of Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets is improved by the addition of heavy rare earth elements such as dysprosium and terbium instead of neodymium. Then, the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets increases. However, additional elements have increased the production cost of Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets. Hence, a study on the control of the microstructure of Nd-Fe-B magnets is being conducted. As the coercive force of magnets improves, the grain size of the $Nd_2Fe_{14}B$ grain is close to 300 nm because they are nucleation-type magnets. In this study, fine particles of Nd-Fe-B are prepared with various grinding energies in the pulverization process used for preparing sintered magnets, and the microstructure and magnetic properties of the magnets are investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2013.12a
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• pp.93-93
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• 2013

In the talk, the present research and production status of NdFeB magnets in China is outlined. The main research on NdFeB magnets at Zhejiang University is presented. The microstructural restructuring of grain boundaries of sintered NdFeB is focused. Through microstructural restructuring, the corrosion resistance of sintered NdFeB can be effectively improved, and NdFeB magnets with high coercivity and low heavy RE contents can be fabricated.

• Metals and materials international
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1422-1431
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• 2018

We investigated the additional (secondary) cooling effect of casted strips on the magnetic properties of Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets. The Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets were fabricated with the casted strips prepared without and with additional cooling. Additional cooling was achieved by blowing Ar gas at various pressures (0.1, 0.3, and 0.6 MPa) on the free-side surface of the strips during the strip-casting process. The higher magnetic properties of $H_c$, $B_r$, and $(BH)_{max}$ of the final Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets were obtained for 0.1 MPa rather than for 0.0 MPa. The best microstructure of the columnar grains in the casted strips was produced with the aid of a lower pressure of gas on the free-side surface. It was found that the microstructure of the strips affects the distribution of grains grown in the sintered magnets. This report demonstrates that the improved magnetic performance of Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets was achieved via additional gas cooling.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.471-476
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• 2008

Sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets have been widely used due to their excellent magnetic properties, especially for driving motors of hybrid and electric vehicles. The microstructure of Nd-Fe-B magnets strongly affects their magnetic properties, in particular the coercivity. Therefore, a post-sintering process like heat-treatment is required for improving the magnetic properties of Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets. In this study, cyclic heat treatment was performed at temperatures between $350^{\circ}C$ and $450^{\circ}C$ up to 16 cycles in order to control microstructures such as size and shape of the Nd-rich phase without grain growth of the $Nd_{2}Fe_{14}B$ phase. The 2 cycles specimen at this temperature range showed more homogeneous microstructure which leads to higher coercivity of 35 kOe than as-sintered one.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.359-364
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• 2010

In an attempt to optimize the magnetic properties of (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B sintered magnets, hydrogenation and post-sintering heat treatment processes were investigated at various hydrogenation temperatures and heat treatment temperatures. The coercivity of (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B sintered magnets hydrogenated at $400^{\circ}C$ increased to about 1.2 kOe without any detrimental effect on the remanence. Moreover, the coercivity of the magnets was enhanced further by a consecutive $2^{nd}$ and $3^{rd}$ step heat treatment. These results eventually leaded to the reduction of the Dy content in a high coercive (> 30 kOe) (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B sintered magnets, as much as 10%.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.169-173
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• 2013

High-coercive (Nd,Dy)-Fe-B magnets were fabricated via dysprosium coating on Nd-Fe-B powder. The sputtering coating process of Nd-Fe-B powder yielded samples with densities greater than 98%. $(Nd,Dy)_2Fe_{14}B$ phases may have effectively penetrated into the boundaries between neighboring $Nd_2Fe_{14}B$ grains during the sputtering coating process, thereby forming a $(Nd,Dy)_2Fe_{14}B$ phase at the grain boundary. The maximum thickness of the Dy shell was approximately 70 nm. The maximum coercivity of the Dy sputter coated samples(sintered samples) increased from 1162.42 to 2020.70 kA/m. The microstructures of the $(Nd,Dy)_2Fe_{14}B$ phases were effectively controlled, resulting in improved magnetic properties. The increase in coercivity of the Nd-Fe-B sintered magnet is discussed from a microstructural point of view.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2011

Sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets are widely used in many fields such as motors, generators, actuators, microwaves and so on due to their excellent magnetic properties. Many researchers have shown that the Nd-rich phase was essentially important for high magnet properties. In this study, we focused on controlling of the Nd-rich phase to enhance magnetic properties by the cyclic sintering process. Nd-Fe-B based sintered magnets were prepared by isothermal sintering and cyclic sintering processes. Magnetic properties and microstructure of the magnets were investigated. The coercivity was enhanced from 21.2 kOe to 23.27 kOe after 10 cycles of the sintering. The Nd-rich phase was effectively penetrated into the grain boundary between the $Nd_2Fe_{14}B$ grains by the cyclic sintering.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2024

Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets have been utilized on various industrial fields such as electric vehicles, generator, robots with actuator, etc, due to their outstanding magnetic properties even 10 times better than conventional magnets. Recently, there are many researches that report magnetic properties improved by controlling microstructure through adjusting alloying elements or conducting various processing. Especially, post-sintering annealing (PSA) can significantly improve the coercivity by modifying the distribution and morphology of Nd-rich phase which formed at grain boundaries. In this study, Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets were subjected to primary heat treatment followed by secondary heat treatment at 460℃, 500℃, and 540℃ to investigate the changes in microstructure and magnetic properties with the secondary heat treatment temperature. EBSD analysis was conducted to compare anisotropic characteristics. Through the SEM and TEM observation for analyzing the morphology and distribution of Nd-rich phase, we investigated the relationship between microstructure and magnetic properties of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.304-307
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• 2011

High performance Nd-Fe-B magnets can be manufactured by both sintering and hot deformation. The corrosion behaviors of the magnets prepared by the two processes were compared. Effect of microstructure on the corrosion resistance of Nd-Fe-B magnets was also investigated. A neutral salt spray test (NSS) was performed for the different-processed magnets. The weight losses of the samples after the corrosion test were measured. The corrosion microstructures were observed using a scanning electron microscope. It shows that the corrosion resistance of hot deformed magnets is much better than that of the sintered ones because the grain size and the distribution of Nd-rich phases of the hot deformed magnets are much finer and more uniform than those of the sintered ones. The different microstructure between the sintered and the hot deformed magnets causes the different corrosion behavior.

• Archives of Metallurgy and Materials
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.1293-1296
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• 2020

NdFeB anisotropic sintered permanent magnets are typically fabricated by strip casting or melt spinning. In this study, the plastic deformability of an NdFeB alloy was investigated to study the possibility of fabricating anisotropic sintered magnets using gas atomized powders. The results show that the stoichiometric composition Nd₁₂Fe₈₂B₆ softens at high temperatures. The aspect ratio and orientation factor of Nd₁₂Fe₈₂B₆ billets after plastic deformation were found to increase with increasing plastic deformation temperature, particularly above 800℃. This confirms that softening at high temperatures can lead to plastic deformation of Nd₂Fe₁₄B hard magnetic phases.