SBIR-STTR Award

Improvements in the properties of permanent magnets are important to enable the design and construction of energy-efficient devices such as motors, actuators, magnetic bearings and magnetic separators. Novel methods for the fabrication of magnets with improved properties will be investigated in this project. Neodymium-iron-boron magnets with superior magnet properties have been recently realized, but it is anticipated that significant improvements can be obtained through the control of chemistry and the amount of intergranular phases, including a judicious substitution of heavy rare-earth atoms into the intergranular phases. These issues will be carefully investigated during Phase I by utilizing a new processing technique devised recently in our laboratory. Methods to scale up this process to produce magnets on an economic basis will be investigated in Phase II. An electromechanical device such as an actuator will be designed and constructed during Phase II to determine the advantages of these magnets.Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee:Improvements in permanent magnets would enhance the torque, force, power and energy efficiency of electromechanical devices. Commercial applications of these magnets include disk drive actuators in personal computers, fractional horsepower motors for electronic instruments and integral horsepower motors for electric vehicles and industrial drives.

Improvements in the properties of permanent magnets are important to enable the design and construction of energy-efficient devices such as motors, actuators, magnetic bearings and magnetic separators. This project is focused on to developing a manufacturing process to fabricate NdFeB permanent magnets with very high energy product. Permanent magnets with energy products close to 50 MGOe will be fabricated by carefully controlling chemical composition, reducing oxygen content, improving grain alignment, and modifying the nature and extent of the grain boundary phase. In Phase I, NdFeB magnets were fabricated by a proprietary process in which the Nd2Fe14B grains were coated with a secondary phase. Results indicate that the coercivity of the magnets improve through the careful control of the secondary phase while the remanence does not decrease significantly. Phase II will optimize the fabrication process, and examine issues such as scale-up and cost control.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
Very high energy permanent magnets are useful in the manufacturing of (1) actuators and spindle drives for computer disk drives, (2) energy-efficient brushless motors for electric vehicles and industrial drives and (3) consumer electronics (cellular phones, pagers and cameras).