This invention relates to magnetocaloric materials comprising ternary alloys useful for magnetic refrigeration applications. The disclosed ternary alloys are Cerium, Neodymium, and/or Gadolinium based compositions that are fairly inexpensive, and in some cases exhibit only 2.sup.nd order magnetic phase transitions near their curie temperature, thus there are no thermal and structural hysteresis losses. This makes these compositions attractive candidates for use in magnetic refrigeration applications. The performance of the disclosed materials is similar or better to many of the known expensive rare-earth based magnetocaloric materials.

This invention relates to magnetocaloric materials comprising ternary alloys useful for magnetic refrigeration applications. The disclosed ternary alloys are Cerium, Neodymium, and/or Gadolinium based compositions that are fairly inexpensive, and in some cases exhibit only 2.sup.nd order magnetic phase transitions near their curie temperature, thus there are no thermal and structural hysteresis losses. This makes these compositions attractive candidates for use in magnetic refrigeration applications. The performance of the disclosed materials is similar or better to many of the known expensive rare-earth based magnetocaloric materials.

Disclosed are a rare-earth permanent magnet having improved magnetic properties and a method of manufacturing the same.

A method of manufacturing a rare-earth permanent magnet may include: preparing a mixed powder including i) a first alloy represented by R1.sub.aR2.sub.bB.sub.cM.sub.dFe.sub.bal and ii) a second alloy represented by R2.sub.bB.sub.cM.sub.dFe.sub.bal where R1 is one or two or more of La, Ce, and Y; R2 is a rare-earth element except for La, Ce, and Y; and M is a metal element; press-forming and sintering the prepared mixed powder in a magnetic field to prepare a sintered body; and performing a heat treatment based on diffusion temperature conditions of an R1 component and an R2 component contained in the prepared sintered body.

Disclosed are a rare-earth permanent magnet having improved magnetic properties and a method of manufacturing the same.

A method of manufacturing a rare-earth permanent magnet may include: preparing a mixed powder including i) a first alloy represented by R1.sub.aR2.sub.bB.sub.cM.sub.dFe.sub.bal and ii) a second alloy represented by R2.sub.bB.sub.cM.sub.dFe.sub.bal where R1 is one or two or more of La, Ce, and Y; R2 is a rare-earth element except for La, Ce, and Y; and M is a metal element; press-forming and sintering the prepared mixed powder in a magnetic field to prepare a sintered body; and performing a heat treatment based on diffusion temperature conditions of an R1 component and an R2 component contained in the prepared sintered body.

An R-T-B-based sintered magnet 2 contains a rare earth element R, a transition metal element T, B, Ga, and O, the sintered magnet 2 includes a magnet body 4 and an oxidized layer 6 covering the magnet body 4, the magnet body 4 includes main phase grains 8 containing a crystal of R.sub.2T.sub.14B and a grain boundary phase 1 positioned between the main phase grains 8 and containing R, the oxidized layer 6 includes a plurality of oxide phases 3A containing R, T, Ga, and O, the oxide phase 3A satisfies the following Formulas (1) and (2) regarding the content (unit: atom %) of each element, and the oxide phase 3A in the oxidized layer 6 covers the grain boundary phase 1 in the magnet body 4.
0.3≤[R]/[T]≤0.5  (1)
0.2≤[O]/([R]+[T]+[Ga]+[O])≤0.7  (2)

An R-T-B-based sintered magnet 2 contains a rare earth element R, a transition metal element T, B, Ga, and O, the sintered magnet 2 includes a magnet body 4 and an oxidized layer 6 covering the magnet body 4, the magnet body 4 includes main phase grains 8 containing a crystal of R.sub.2T.sub.14B and a grain boundary phase 1 positioned between the main phase grains 8 and containing R, the oxidized layer 6 includes a plurality of oxide phases 3A containing R, T, Ga, and O, the oxide phase 3A satisfies the following Formulas (1) and (2) regarding the content (unit: atom %) of each element, and the oxide phase 3A in the oxidized layer 6 covers the grain boundary phase 1 in the magnet body 4.
0.3≤[R]/[T]≤0.5  (1)
0.2≤[O]/([R]+[T]+[Ga]+[O])≤0.7  (2)

A method for producing rare-earth magnet powder having high magnetic properties including a disproportionation step of causing hydrogen absorption and disproportionation reaction to a magnet raw material obtained by exposing a cast alloy containing a rare earth element (R), boron (B) and a transition metal (TM) to a hydrogen atmosphere having a temperature of 350 to 550 deg. C, and a recombination step of causing hydrogen desorption and recombination reaction to the magnet raw material after the disproportionation step.

A method for preparing an oxygen-free passivated titanium or titanium-alloy powder product by means of gas-solid fluidization is provided. The new method includes placing the metal halide and the titanium powder which meet formula requirements into a gasifier and a fluidized bed reactor respectively; heating the gasifier to gasify the metal halide, and introducing dry argon and halide gas into the fluidized bed reactor; opening the fluidized bed, heating the fluidized bed, fluidizing the titanium powder after the introduction of the argon and the metal halide gas, and cooling the product to obtain the titanium powder subjected to oxygen-free passivation using metal chloride; molding the oxygen-free passivated titanium powder into a green body with powder metallurgy technology; and sintering the green body in vacuum or argon atmosphere according to the molding technology, and after temperature rise treatment, performing a densification sintering operation to obtain a high-performance titanium product component.

A method for preparing an oxygen-free passivated titanium or titanium-alloy powder product by means of gas-solid fluidization is provided. The new method includes placing the metal halide and the titanium powder which meet formula requirements into a gasifier and a fluidized bed reactor respectively; heating the gasifier to gasify the metal halide, and introducing dry argon and halide gas into the fluidized bed reactor; opening the fluidized bed, heating the fluidized bed, fluidizing the titanium powder after the introduction of the argon and the metal halide gas, and cooling the product to obtain the titanium powder subjected to oxygen-free passivation using metal chloride; molding the oxygen-free passivated titanium powder into a green body with powder metallurgy technology; and sintering the green body in vacuum or argon atmosphere according to the molding technology, and after temperature rise treatment, performing a densification sintering operation to obtain a high-performance titanium product component.

A hydrogenation-dehydrogenation method for a TiAl alloy includes performing hydrogenation treatment of the TiAl alloy in an environment of a set temperature equal to or higher than a temperature at which phase transformation to a β phase starts; and performing dehydrogenation treatment of the TiAl alloy which has been subjected to the hydrogenation treatment. The set temperature ranges from 1,100° C. to 1,600° C.