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 Nd2Fe14B 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.

We investigate the microstructural and magnetic property changes of DyH2, Cu + DyH2, and Al + DyH2 diffusion-treated NdFeB sintered magnets with the post annealing (PA) temperature. The coercivity of all the diffusiontreated magnets increases with increasing heat treatment temperature except at 910oC, where it decreases slightly. Moreover, at 880oC, the coercivity increases by 3.8 kOe in Cu and 4.7 kOe in Al-mixed DyH2-coated magnets, whereas this increase is relatively low (3.0 kOe) in the magnet coated with only DyH2. Both Cu and Al have an almost similar effect on the coercivity improvement, particularly over the heat treatment temperature range of 790-880oC. The diffusivity and diffusion depth of Dy increases in those magnets that are treated with Cu or Al-mixed DyH2, mainly because of the comparatively easy diffusion path provided by Cu and Al owing to their solubility in the Nd-rich grain boundary phase. The formation of a highly anisotropic (Nd, Dy)2Fe14B phase layer, which acts as the shell in the core-shell-type structure so as to prevent the reverse domain movement, is the cause of enhanced coercivity of diffusion-treated Nd-Fe-B magnets.

Effect of Cu and powder mixing with Cu-free (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B jet-milled powder on the magnetic properties of sintered magnets was investigated. The coercivity of a magnet prepared from the Cu-free (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B powder was about 10 kOe even though the alloy powder already contained some Dy (3.5 wt%). When small copper powder was blended, however, the coercivity of the magnet increased almost 100%, exhibiting about 20 kOe. On the contrary, the coercivity enhancement was moderate, about 4 kOe, when dysprosium content in the sintered magnet was simply increased to 4.9 wt% by the addition of small 3 powder.

In this study, a convergent heat treatment was performed in certain temperature regions in order to control the microstructures of Nd-rich phases and to reduce thermal stress on grain boundaries which could be caused during expansion and shrinkage of Nd-rich and phases. The difference of thermal expansion coefficient between and Nd-rich phases is the mechanism for convergent heat treatment. The Nd-rich phases which were located in junctions could penetrate into the grain boundaries between phases due to the difference of thermal expansion coefficient. Through the convergent heat treatment, the microcracks that were observed in cyclic heat treatment were not observed and coercivity was increased to 34.05 kOe at 8 cycles.

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 and up to 16 cycles in order to control microstructures such as size and shape of the Nd-rich phase without grain growth of the 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.

합금의 주조시 냉각속도가 Nd16Fe72V4B8 소결자석의 결정립 분포와 착자특성에 미치는 영향에 대하여 조사하였다. 냉각속도가 높은 Cu mold를 사용하여 제작한 시료는 좁은 결정립 분포와 착자특성의 향상을 보였다. B화합물을 생성하는 Cr, Mn, Nb 그리고 w과 같은 첨가원소가 Nd-Fe-B계 소결자석의 착자특성에 미치는 영향에 대해서도 조사하였다. Cr이나 W첨가는 보자력의 향상에 효과적이고 Nd16Fe72Cr4B9합금은 Nd16Fe72V4B8합금과 비슷한 착자특성을 보였다.