HDDR treated anisotropic Nd-Fe-B powders have been widely used for the sheet motors and the sunroof motors of hybrid or electric vehicles, due to their excellent magnetic properties. Microstructural alignment of HDDR treated powders are mostly depending on the hydrogen reaction in disproportionation step, so the specific method to control hydrogenation reaction is required for improving magnetic properties. In disproportionation step, hydrogenation pressure and reaction time were controlled in the range of 0.15~1.0 atm for 15~180 min in order to control the micorstructural alignment of phase and, at the same time, to improve remanence of HDDR treated magnet powders. In this study, we could obtain a well aligned anisotropic Nd-Fe-B-Ga-Nb alloy powder having high remanence of 12 kG by reducing hydrogen pressure down to 0.3 atm in disproportionation step.

HDDR treated anisotropic Nd-Fe-B powders have been widely used, due to their excellent magnetic properties, especially for sheet motors and sunroof motors of hybrid and electric vehicles. Final microstructure and coercivity of such Nd-Fe-B powders depend on the state of starting mother alloys, so additional homogenization treatment is required for improving magnetic properties of them. In this study, a homogenization treatment was performed at in order to control the grain size and Nd-rich phase distribution, and at the same time to improve coercivity of the HDDR treated magnetic powders. FE-SEM was used for observing grain size of the HDDR treated powder and EPMA was employed to observe distribution of Nd-rich phase. Magnetic properties were analyzed with a vibrating sample magnetometer.