

Laser based powder bed fusion is a promising manufacturing method that can be used for the fabrication of hard magnets such as NdFeB with nearly any given geometrical shape. However, the weak performance, e.g., low coercivity, of the 3D-printed magnets currently hinder their application. In this work, we demonstrated a proof-of-concept of powder bed additive manufacturing of heavy rare earth free NdFeB magnets with technologically attractive coercivity values. The 3D-printed NdFeB magnets exhibit the highest (up-to-date for the additively manufactured magnets without heavy rare earth metals) coercivity values reaching μ0Hc = 1.6 T. The magnets were synthesized using a mixture of the NdFeB-based and the low-melting eutectic alloy powders. The essential function of the eutectic alloy, along with binding of the NdFeB-based magnetic particles, is the significant improvement of their coercivity by the in-situ grain boundary (GB) infiltration. The fundamental understanding of the magnetization reversal processes in these 3D-printed magnets leads to the conclusion that the excellent performance of the additively manufactured hard magnets can be achieved through the delicate control of the intergrain exchange interaction between the grains of the Nd2Fe14B phase. © 2020 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
| Engineering controlled terms: | 3D printersAdditivesCoercive forceEutecticsExchange interactionsIron alloysMagnetization reversalMagnetsNeodymium alloysPowder metalsRare earths |
|---|---|
| Engineering uncontrolled terms | Grain boundary engineeringGrain boundary infiltrationGrain-boundariesHard magnetsHeavy rare earthsIntergrain exchangeIntergrain exchange interactionNdFeB magnetPowder bedRare-earth-free |
| Engineering main heading: | Grain boundaries |
| Funding sponsor | Funding number | Acronym |
|---|---|---|
| MA 3333/13-1 | ||
| Government Council on Grants, Russian Federation | ||
| Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation | FEUZ-2020-0051 |
The financial support was provided by the German Science Foundation under the Leibniz Program (Grant MA 3333/13-1), by Act 211 Government of the Russian Federation (contract № 02.A03.21.0006), and Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Grant Number FEUZ-2020-0051.
Okulov, I.V.; Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering - IWT and Faculty of Production Engineering, University of Bremen, Badgasteiner Str. 3, Bremen, Germany;
© Copyright 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.