ARTICLE IN PRESS

Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 303 (2006) 344–347

www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm

Recent development of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets

and their applications
Yutaka Matsuura
NEOMAX Co., Ltd. 2-15-17 Egawa Shimamoto-cho Mishima-gun Osaka, Japan 618-0013
Available online 3 March 2006

Abstract

Many new applications of Nd–Fe–B magnets have emerged in the past two decades. Recently, motor application has taken over VCM
position which was the dominant application in Nd–Fe–B sintered magnet previously. Motor market is expected to expand in future
because of strong energy saving requirements from the automobile and electric appliances markets.
Magnetic property improvement in residual magnetization (Br) and coercive force (HcJ) helped the rapid growth of the motor market.
Magnetic properties are still rapidly improving and many technologies for powder alignment are also being invented. A new world record
of magnetic properties with Br ¼ 1.555 T, (BH)max ¼ 474 kJ/m3 HcJ ¼ 653 kA/m was established by NEOMAX Co. Ltd.
r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Nd–Fe–B magnets; Nd–Fe–B magnets market trend; High performance magnets; Grain orientation

1. Introduction applications, magnets are used at high temperatures and in

After Nd–Fe–B sintered magnet was invented in 1982 [1],
many new applications such as magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) devices and voice coil motors (VCM) for
hard disc drives (HDD) emerged and a huge market was
created in the past two decades. Many new applications
using the Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets are still emerging in
industrial motor, automobile and electric appliances.
These new applications require higher residual magne-
tization (Br) and higher coercive force (HcJ) than before. To
meet these requirements, many grades of Nd–Fe–B sintered
magnets have been developed and have contributed to the
rapidly growing motor market. In this paper, current
situation of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets and their applica-
tions are briefly described.
2. Market trend of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets in Japan
Today, Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets are applied to the
automobile motors such as traction motors of hybrid
electric vehicles and electric power steering motors. In these
E-mail address: matsuura.y@neomax.co.jp.
large reverse magnetic fields originated from the stator
coils. These applications require higher magnetic flux and
coercive force magnets than typical, conventional, applica-
tions.
Fig. 1 shows annual production of Nd–Fe–B sintered
magnets in Japan. Production of this magnet reached
almost 7.070 metric tons in 2004. Fig. 2 shows application
in 1999 and 2004. Application share of these magnets was
significantly changed from 1999 to 2004. Nd–Fe–B
magnets for VCM was dominant and its market share
was 50% in 1999. In 2004, magnets for motors took over
the VCM position and their market share reached 35%
compared with 32% of VCM.
Energy saving and efficiency would be a big issue for
automobile and electric appliances. High-performance
Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets will play an increasingly
important role in these applications. Fig. 3 shows some
example of recent motor applications. Air conditioner
compressor motor uses Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets. In-
serted permanent magnet rotor is used because of better
efficiency than a surface mounted rotor in a compressor
motor. Electric power steering motors (EPS) and hybrid
electric vehicle motors contributed to the recent expansion
of motor market.

0304-8853/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmmm.2006.01.171
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
Y. Matsuura / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 303 (2006) 344–347 345

3. Recent development of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets

Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets production started in 1985.

Only two grades of material at the initial stage of
production was produced commercially. One is NEO-
MAX-36 which has over 1120 kA/m coercive force and the
other is NEOMAX-30H which has over 1360 kA/m. New
applications required higher Br and HcJ than these initial
stage materials. VCM and MRI needed higher Br but
servo-motors, which is used in industrial robots and
automobile motors such as electric power steering or
traction motors for hybrid electric vehicles, required higher
coercive force than ever. Magnetic properties of Nd–Fe–B
sintered magnets were improved in two ways. One was the
improvement of Br and the other was improvement of HcJ.
Improvement of Br was achieved by the following method:

(a) Increase of volume ratio of the Nd2Fe14B main phase.

(b) Improvement of grain orientation in pressing process.
Fig. 1. Production of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets in Japan. (c) Realization of the full density in sintering process.

Nd–Fe–B sintered magnet is mainly composed of three

others phases. The main phase in Nd–Fe–B sintered magnet is
Communications Nd2Fe14B. Other two phases are Nd1+eFe4B4 and an Nd-
rich phase. Table 1 shows the relation between volume
Acoustic ratio of these phases and Br in several different grades of
Outer Circle 2004 Nd–Fe–B sintered magnet. An increase in volume ratio of
VCM the main phase is one of important factors to improve
7,070 ton
residual magnetization (Br). Volume ratio of the main
Motors
50% 32% phase also decreases by inclusion of impurities such as
35% 20% oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon which come from magnet
Inner Circle 1999
manufacturing processes.
4,800 ton Grain orientation is an important factor for high
performance magnet. In a magnet manufacturing process,
MRI a raw material which is made by induction furnace is
crashed into powder of 3–5 mm in grain diameter. In this
Fig. 2. Application share of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets. process, almost every grain is crashed into a single crystal.

Fig. 3. Motor applications using Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets.

 ARTICLE IN PRESS
346 Y. Matsuura / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 303 (2006) 344–347

Table 1
Volume ratio of each phase in Nd–Fe–B sintered magnet

Volume ratio of each phase (vol%) Orientation A Remanence Br/T

Nd2Fe14B B-rich R-rich R-Oxide

HILOP-55AH 95.0 0.4 2.3 1.8 0.98 1.48

NEOMAX-52 93.0 0.9 3.5 2.1 0.97 1.44
NEOMAX-48 91.5 0.9 3.6 3.5 0.95 1.39
NEOMAX-35 89.0 2.5 4.5 3.5 0.85 1.23

0
Js=1.508T

Decreasing Ratio of Coercive Force

1.5
Improved -5

(HcJ/HcJrandom×100) (%)
Inclined Field
Random Grain Orientation
-10
1.48
Br (T)

-15
CIP
HILOP -20
1.46
Perfect Grain
-25
Conventional Die Press Orientation

-30
1.44 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0.96 0.97 0.98 0.99 1
Orientation Grain Orientation

Fig. 4. Relation between orientation and Br of sintered magnet with Fig. 5. Relation between decreasing ratio of coercive force from random
Nd13.8FebalB5.7. orientation magnet and grain orientation.

This powder is aligned in magnetic field before pressing. In
pressing process, pressing pressure and the friction exerted
between grains disturb grain orientation to be oblique from
the magnetic field direction. Many methods such as cold
isostatic press (CIP), rubber isostatic press (RIP) [2],
inclined magnetic pulse field method [3] and a wet press
which is called HILOP process were applied to improve the
degree of grain orientations in the pressing process. Fig. 4
shows the relation between grain orientation and Br of
Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets with a composition of
Nd13.8FebalB5.7. Grain orientation was defined by Br/Js.
Saturation magnetization (Js) was measured by vibration
magnetometer (VSM) in 10 T magnetic field. Highest grain
orientation was achieved 0.991 using improved inclined
magnetic field method.
Various additives such as V, Mo, W was applied to
improve HcJ of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets [4] but Br
decreases with increasing additive content. Improvement of
HcJ is still mainly dependent on heavy rare earth such as
Dy or Tb. Heavy rare earth sputtering method onto as
sintered Nd–Fe–B magnets was applied to reduce heavy rare
earth content [5]. Magnet was heat-treated after sputtering.
In this magnet, heavy rare earth was observed in grain
boundary after heat treatment and coercive force increase
30–50% compared with without sputtering magnet.
Coercive force (HcJ) of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnet is also
affected by grain orientation.
Fig. 5 shows a decreasing ratio of coercive force which is
defined as a ratio of coercive force with respect to coercive
force of a magnet composed of randomly oriented grains
(HcJrandom)
H cJ =H cJrandom
100
for various coercive force materials as a function of the
degree of grain orientation. It is found that coercive force
decrease with grain orientation improvement. Further-
more, the decreasing ratios of different coercive force
materials have no relation with the value of coercive force
and falls on the same curve as a function of the degree of
grain orientation despite of different coercive force.
Decreasing ratio steeply decrease in over 0.9 grain
orientation area. At perfect alignment (1.0), coercive force
is expected to decrease by 30% from HcJrandom.
Magnetic properties of this type of magnets also have
been improved rapidly [6,7]. Fig. 6 shows the history of
energy product improvements at a laboratory level.
A new world record of magnetic properties with
Br ¼ 1.555 T, (BH)max ¼ 474 kJ/m3 HcJ ¼ 653 kA/m was
established by NEOMAX Co. Ltd. in 2005. In this magnet,
we achieved 0.982 main phase volume ratio, 600 ppm
oxygen content and 0.991 grain orientation.
Fig. 7 shows various grades of Nd–Fe–B sintered magnet
which are available in commercial use. In this table,
materials with 1.0 to 1.25 MA/m coercive force are used for
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
Y. Matsuura / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 303 (2006) 344–347 347

applications. Over 1.5 MA/m material is used for EPS.

480
Hybrid electric vehicle traction motors need an over
2.0 MA/m coercive force material to overcome demagne-
460 tization effects due to temperature and demagnetization
fields from stator coil.
(BH)max kJ/m3

440
4. Summary
420
Many new applications in Nd–Fe–B magnet have
emerged in the past two decades. Recently motor applica-
400 tion has taken over VCM position which was the dominant
application in Nd–Fe–B sintered magnet previously. The
motor market is expected to expand in the future because
380
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 of strong energy saving requirements from automobile and
Year electric appliances markets.
Magnetic property improvements in Br and HcJ have
Fig. 6. History of (BH)max improvement in laboratories.
helped the rapid growth of the motor market. Magnetic
HcJ/ kOe properties are still steadily improving and many technol-
12 16 20 24 28 32 ogies such as low oxygen process and pressing methods are
1.6 also being invented to enhance residual magnetization.
We expect these new technology will be use in emerging
new applications in future.
NEOMAX
1.4 14
References
Br /kG
Br / T

1.2 12
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[4] M. Sagawa, S. Hirosawa, J. Mater. Res. 3 (1988) 45.
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[5] N. Ishigaki, S. Suzuki, K. Machida, NEOMAX Tech. Report 15
HcJ / MA/m
(2005) 15.
[6] W. Rodewald, B. Wall, M. Katter, K. Ustunner, S. Steinmetz, in:
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