Thermal stability of sintered and bonded rare-earth magnets

One of most important issues of magnets for automobiles is thermal stability. The aim of the present work is to make clear the available temperature limit of sintered and bonded magnets for automobile applications. Thermal stability was determined by the critical temperature of 3% irreversible flux loss (T−3%φ) under thermal cycles. For instance, the T−3%φ of sintered NdFeB magnets (Pc=0.5) with the intrinsic coercivity of 1600, 1920, and 2240 kA/m, were 393, 423, and 453 K, respectively. On the other hand, the T−3%φ of HDDR-NdFeB (HcJ=960 kA/m) and SmFeN (HcJ=560 kA/m) bonded magnets (Pc=2) were about 353 K.