Progress in Grain Boundary Diffusion Process of Hot-deformed Nd-Fe-B Permanent Magnets
Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets have been widely used due to excellent performance.With the rapid development of electric vehicles,drones and wind power generators,the demand for Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets will further increase.The maximum energy product of Nd-Fe-B magnets is close to the theoretical limit,but the coercivity which is one of the most important properties of permanent magnet applications remains far below the theoretical limit.In theory,hot deformed NdFeB magnets can obtain high coercivity without or with a small amount of heavy rare earth,but the coercivity in actual production is much lower than the theoretical value.In recent years,the grain boundary diffusion process has been successfully applied to hot deformed Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets,effectively improving the coercivity and enhancing the application potential of hot deformed Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets,but the systematic introduce on it is few.This paper reviews the grain boundary diffusion technology of hot deformed Nd-Fe-B magnets from three aspects,including grain boundary diffusion principle,origin and development and latest progress.