Proface
Neodymium Magnets and How They Are Made
Neodymium magnets are produced of iron, boron, and an alloy of neodymium. It is a long-lasting magnet classified as a rare earth magnet. It is the most commonly used type of rare earth magnet. It is the strongest type of permanent magnet that is commonly available. It was Sumitomo Special Metals and General Motors in 1982 that found the Nd2Fe14B compound which forms the neodymium magnets.
The properties of permanent magnets are energy product, Curie temperature, coercivity, and remanence. Neodymium magnets have high marks on all of these properties save for the Curie temperature, which is low in these magnets. Also, this type of magnet is graded in accordance to its maximum energy product. Higher grades show stronger magnets and this can range from N35 to N52. The letter that follows the number designates the maximum operating temperatures, or the Curie temperature. This ranges from M, which is up to 100 degrees Celsius, right up to EH, or 200 degrees Celsius,.
Neodymium magnets are commonly used and have taken the place of ferrite and alnico magnets in many fields. This is because of their great strength which enables smaller, lighter magnets to be used. This type of magnet is used for a lot of things, including things like electric generators for wind turbines, electric motors, door locks, MRIs, and magnetic bearings, among others. Due to their strength, they have also been used where magnets were not used before, like in magnetic building sets, jewelry clasps, and desk toys. It also paved the way for the introduction of magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, which has been of great use in the medical industry .
The great strength of neodymium magnets also has its drawbacks . The greater force that these magnets exert creates dangers that are not usually seen with the other types of magnets. Magnets that are even just bigger than a few cubic centimetres are enough to cause potential harm. Body parts squeezed in between two magnets can cause fractured bones. The reason behind this is that the force exerted by the two magnets is strong enough to break fragile material. There have also been known cases where some youngsters accidentally swallowed a couple of magnets, causing a great deal of internal damage. The magnetic fields generated can also potentially tinker mechanical and electronic devices; they can erase data from credit cards and floppy disks, for example.
There are two primary methods of producing neodymium magnets, the sintered and the bonded magnet process. A sintered magnet is made by placing the raw materials in a furnace and melted, then cast into a mold and eventually cooled to form metal bars. These ingots are then crushed to tiny bits and go through a process of liquid-phase sintering at which point the powder is aligned magnetically into condensed blocks. Later on, the blocks are heat-treated and magnetized. Bonded magnets are made by taking a thin ribbon of NdFeB alloy and melt spinning it. The ribbon is then crushed, combined with a polymer, and injection or compression molded into bonded magnets.
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