A sintered annular magnet with a radial orientation of a remanent magnetic field, including: a principal annular part made from a ferromagnetic material, that has a first degree of magnetic anisotropy in the radial direction; and an annular reinforcing part fixed to the principal part of the magnet, the reinforcing part being made from same ferromagnetic material as the ferromagnetic material forming the principal part, and that has a second degree of magnetic anisotropy in the radial direction, the first degree being higher than the second degree.

A Sm—Fe—N-based magnet powder that includes a Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material powder, wherein an average particle size of the Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material powder is not larger than 5 μm, and a full width at half maximum of a diffraction peak of a (220) plane in an X-ray diffraction profile of the Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material powder is not larger than 0.0033 Å. Also disclosed is a Sm—Fe—N-based sintered magnet that includes a sintered body of a Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material, wherein an average grain size of crystal grains of the Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material is not larger than 5 μm, and a full width at half maximum of a diffraction peak of a (220) plane in an X-ray diffraction profile of the Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material is not larger than 0.0033 Å.

A permanent magnet of an embodiment includes: a composition represented by a composition formula: R(Fe.sub.pM.sub.qCu.sub.rCo.sub.1-p-q-r).sub.z, where R is at least one element selected from rare-earth elements, M is at least one element selected from Zr, Ti, and Hf, and relations of 0.3≦p≦0.4, 0.01≦q≦0.05, 0.01≦r≦0.1, and 7≦z≦8.5 (atomic ratio) are satisfied; and a structure including a cell phase having a Th.sub.2Zn.sub.17 crystal phase, and a cell wall phase existing to surround the cell phase. An average magnetization of the cell wall phase is 0.2 T or less.

A permanent magnet of an embodiment includes a sintered compact, the sintered compact including: a composition expressed by R.sub.pFe.sub.qM.sub.rCu.sub.sCo.sub.100-p-q-r-s, (R is at least one element selected from rare earth elements, M is at least one element selected from Zr, Ti, and Hf, 10.5≦p≦12.5 atomic %, 24≦q≦40 atomic %, 0.88≦r≦4.5 atomic %, and 3.5≦s≦10.7 atomic %); and a structure having crystal grains each composed of a main phase including a Th.sub.2Zn.sub.17 crystal phase, and a crystal grain boundary of the crystal grains. An average crystal grain diameter of the crystal grains is 50 μm or more and 100 μm or less, and a ratio of the crystal grains having a crystal grain diameter of 50 μm or more is 75% or more.

A magnet and a method of forming the magnet are provided. The method includes forming a slurry comprising magnetic powder material and binder material and creating raw layers from the slurry. A magnetic field is applied to the raw layers to orient the magnetic powder material in a desired direction, and each layer is cured to form another layer on the most recent cured layer. The layers are attached together.

In one embodiment, a magnet includes a plurality of layers, each layer having a microstructure of sintered particles. The particles in at least one of the layers are characterized as having preferentially aligned magnetic orientations in a first direction.

A sintered magnet, the sintered magnet including a core portion, a shell portion arranged at an outer part of the sintered magnet, and a diffusion portion arranged at least partially between the core portion and the shell portion. The shell portion has a coercivity, which is at least 30 kA/m larger than the coercivity of the core portion. In the diffusion portion, the coercivity is not less than the coercivity of the core portion and not larger than the coercivity of the shell portion and the value of the coercivity gradually increases from the core portion towards the shell portion. The thickness of the core portion is not less than 1 mm and the total thickness of the shell portion and the diffusion portion is at least 5 mm.

This invention provides methods for fabricating a hard or soft magnet with tailorable magnetic and crystallographic orientations. Methods are disclosed to individually tailor three-dimensional voxels for selected crystallographic orientations and, independently, selected magnetic orientations with location specificity throughout a magnet. Some variations provide a method of making a magnet, comprising: providing a feedstock composition containing magnetic or magnetically susceptible materials; exposing the feedstock composition to an energy source for melting, thereby generating a first melt layer; solidifying the first melt layer in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field, thereby generating a magnetic metal layer containing a plurality of individual voxels; optionally repeating to generate a plurality of solid layers; and recovering a magnet comprising the magnetic metal layer(s), wherein the externally applied magnetic field has a magnetic-field orientation that is selected to control a magnetic axis and a crystallographic texture within the magnetic metal layer(s).

When a slurry s obtained by dispersing a rare-earth-compound powder in a solvent is applied to sintered magnet bodies m, and dried to remove the solvent in the slurry and cause the surfaces of the sintered magnet bodies to be coated with the powder, and the sintered magnet bodies coated with the powder are heat treated to cause the rare-earth element to be absorbed by the sintered magnet bodies, the sintered magnet bodies m are warmed or heated before the slurry s is applied. As a result, the rare-earth-compound powder can be efficiently and uniformly applied to the surfaces of the sintered magnet bodies.

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a rare-earth magnet, the method comprising the steps of preparing a rare-earth magnet raw material powder including R, Fe and B as composition components (R is one or more elements selected from the rare earth elements including Y and Sc); packing the raw material powder into a molding die, and compacting and molding the raw material powder while applying a magnetic field, wherein, in the compacting and molding step, compacting is performed biaxially, in the directions of X and Y axes, when the magnetic field is applied in the direction of Z axis.