Provided are Ce/Co/Cu permanent magnet alloys containing certain refractory metals, such as Ta and/or Hf, and optionally Fe which represent economically more favorable alternative to Sm-based magnets with respect to both material and processing costs and which retain and/or improve magnetic characteristics useful for GAP MAGNET applications.

Disclosed in the present invention are a heavy rare earth alloy, neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnet material, a raw material, and a preparation method. The heavy rare earth alloy comprises the following components: RH: 30-100 mas %, not including 100 mas %; X, 0-20 mas %, not including 0; B: 0-1.1 mas %; and Fe and/or Co: 15-69 mas %, RH comprising one or more heavy rare earth elements in Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, and Sc, and X being Ti and/or Zr. When the heavy rare earth alloy of the present invention is used as a sub-alloy to prepare the neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnet material, a high utilization rate of heavy rare earth is achieved, so that the coercivity can also be greatly improved while the neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnet material maintains high remanence.

A caster assembly configured to process and store a material includes a reaction chamber, a storage assembly configured to store material processed in the reaction chamber, and a blower configured to process and store the material. The reaction chamber includes a vessel configured to hold the material in a melted state prior to processing and a powder generating assembly configured to receive the material from the melting vessel. The powder generating assembly includes a feeding chamber and a feeding device disposed at least partially within the feeding chamber. The feeding device includes at least one nozzle configured to inject inert fluid, where the fluid is a gas, liquid, or combination of the two into the feeding chamber and a material inlet through which the material is configured to flow into the feeding chamber to be exposed to the inert fluid, where the fluid is a gas, liquid, or combination of the two.

A method for improving magnetic properties of a Ce—Y-rich rare earth permanent magnet is provided, and the Ce—Y-rich rare earth permanent magnet is subjected to pressurized heat treatment to improve magnetic properties. The method includes: preparing a pristine magnet through a sintering process; and placing the pristine magnet into a pressurized heat treatment device and performing pressurized heat treatment under the protection of an argon atmosphere. By regulating parameters such as pressure, temperature and holding time in the heat treatment process, element diffusion in the Ce—Y-rich permanent magnet is promoted, and coercivity, remanence, magnetic energy product and temperature stability of the Ce—Y-rich permanent magnet are improved. The method has advantages of a simple process with low energy consumption, a substitution amount of rare earths Ce—Y up to 90 wt % while having excellent magnetic performance, so that a way for efficient utilization of high-abundance rare earths Ce and Y is provided.

A sintered magnet body (R.sub.aT.sup.1.sub.bM.sub.cB.sub.d) coated with a powder mixture of an intermetallic compound (R.sup.1.sub.iM.sup.1.sub.j, R.sup.1.sub.xT.sup.2.sub.yM.sup.1.sub.z, R.sup.1.sub.iM.sup.1.sub.jH.sub.k), alloy (M.sup.1.sub.dM.sup.2.sub.e) or metal (M.sup.1) powder and a rare earth (R.sup.2) oxide is diffusion treated. The R.sup.2 oxide is partially reduced during the diffusion treatment, so a significant amount of R.sup.2 can be introduced near interfaces of primary phase grains within the magnet through the passages in the form of grain boundaries. The coercive force is increased while minimizing a decline of remanence.

Provided is a sputtering target material having excellent crack resistance and a method of producing the same. Also provided is a sputtering target material and a method of producing the same. The sputtering target material is composed of an alloy consisting of B; one or more rare earth elements; and the balance consisting of Co and/or Fe and unavoidable impurities. The amount of B in the alloy is 15 at. % or more and 30 at. % or less. The one or more rare earth elements are selected from the group consisting of Pr, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, and Ho. The total amount of the one or more rare earth elements in the alloy is 0.1 at. % or more and 10 at. % or less.

To provide a rare earth magnet having excellent coercive force and a production method thereof. A rare earth magnet, wherein the rare earth magnet comprises a magnetic phase containing Sm, Fe, and N, a Zn phase present around the magnetic phase, and an intermediate phase present between the magnetic phase and the Zn phase, wherein the intermediate phase contains Zn and the oxygen content of the intermediate phase is higher than the oxygen content of the Zn phase; and a method for producing a rare earth magnet, including mixing a magnetic raw material powder having an oxygen content of 1.0 mass % or less and an improving agent powder containing metallic Zn and/or a Zn alloy, and heat-treating the mixed powder.

The use of a magnetic particle based “PUF” (Physically Unclonable Function) disk, when read by magnetic sensor(s), as a positional encoder is described. It is often necessary to include a linear or rotary encoder within a device for tracking motor movements, or to enable a closed-loop control algorithm on the motor system. These randomly dispersed magnetic particle disks can be used as a positional encoder, where the speed of movement and the direction of movement may be monitored.

The use of a magnetic particle based “PUF” (Physically Unclonable Function) disk, when read by magnetic sensor(s), as a positional encoder is described. It is often necessary to include a linear or rotary encoder within a device for tracking motor movements, or to enable a closed-loop control algorithm on the motor system. These randomly dispersed magnetic particle disks can be used as a positional encoder, where the speed of movement and the direction of movement may be monitored.

A magnet material is represented by a composition formula 1: R.sub.xNb.sub.yB.sub.xM.sub.100x-y-z, R is at least one element selected from the group consisting of rare-earth elements, M is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Fe and Co, x is a number satisfying 4≤x≤10 atomic %, y is a number satisfying 0.1≤y≤8 atomic %, and z is a number satisfying 0.1≤z≤12 atomic %. The magnet material includes: a main phase having a TbCu.sub.7 crystal phase; and a grain boundary phase. The magnet material satisfies a relation of n.sub.Nb2/n.sub.Nb1>5, where n.sub.Nb1 is an average Nb concentration in the TbCu.sub.7 crystal phase and n.sub.Nb2 is a maximum Nb concentration in the grain boundary phase.