METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING RARE EARTH PERMANENT MAGNET

Abstract

There is provided a method for manufacturing a rare earth sintered magnet by many times repetitively finely pulverizing a rare earth alloy on a jet mill by supplying high-pressure nitrogen gas to narrow grain size distribution to make an easy alignment in a magnetic field, and by micronizing crystal grains by using a hydrogenation-disproportionation-desorption-recombination (HDDR) process, to improve the coercivity and thermostability of the rare earth sintered magnet.

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing a rare earth sintered magnet comprising the steps of: preparing a rare earth alloy composed of xwt % RE-ywt % B-zwt % TM-bal.wt % Fe (wherein RE is a rare earth element, TM is a 3d transition element, x=2835, y=0.51.5 and z=015); coarsely pulverizing the prepared rare earth alloy; finely pulverizing a powder of rare earth alloy which has been coarsely pulverized, repetitively 210 times, using a jet mill method; aligning and compacting the finely pulverized rare earth alloy powder in a magnetic field, to be magnetized; performing a HDDR process to a compact which has been magnetized; sintering the HDDR processed compact; and loading the sintered alloy into a heating furnace to be heat-treated under a vacuum or in an inert gas atmosphere, thereby forming a rare earth centered magnet.

2. The method for manufacturing a rare earth sintered magnet in claim 1, wherein, in the finely pulverizing step, classification is carried out at a rotational speed of 2,0008,000 rpm.

3. The method for manufacturing a rare earth sintered magnet in claim 1, wherein, in the finely pulverizing step, nitrogen gas is supplied to a classifying section at an atmospheric pressure of 610 atm.

4. The method for manufacturing a rare earth sintered magnet in claim 1, wherein, in the HDDR process performing step, the magnetized compact is loaded into a vacuum furnace for vacuum-exhaust to be heated at 700900 C. and maintained for 13 hours by changing the vacuum furnace atmosphere to a hydrogen atmosphere of 0.20.5 atm, and subsequently to be heated at the same temperature for 10 minutes to 1 hour by changing the hydrogen atmosphere of 0.20.5 atm to a vacuum atmosphere.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0040] The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawing(s) in which:

[0041] FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a process of a method for manufacturing a rare earth sintered magnet according to the present invention.

MODE FOR INVENTION

[0042] The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawing(s), in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown.

Manufacturing Method

[0043] (1) Step of Preparing a Rare Earth Alloy Powder

[0044] A raw material powder is prepared as a powder formed of a rare earth alloy. When the rare earth alloy(s) is composed of at least one selected from the rare earth elements (RE=Nd, Pr, La, Ce, Ho, Dy and Tb), Fe, at least one selected from the 3d transition elements (TM=Co, Cu, Al, Ga, Nb, Ti, Mo, V, Zr and Zn) and/or B, an RE-Fe alloy, an RE-Fe-TM alloy, an RE-FeB alloy and an RE-Fe-TM-B alloy are obtained. More specifically, the rare earth alloys are an NdFeB alloy, an NdFeCo alloy, an NdFeCoB alloy, etc. The powders composed of the rare earth alloys, which are publicly known to be used for a rare earth sintered magnet, can be used as the raw material powders.

[0045] The raw material powder is the alloy composed of xwt % RE-ywt % B-zwt % TM-bal.wt % Fe (RE is a rare earth element, TM is a 3d transition element, x=2835, y=0.51.5 and z=015).

[0046] The raw material powder formed of the alloy having a desired composition is manufactured by pulverizing a foil, which is obtained by melting and casting an ingot or a rapid cooling-based solidification method, by a pulverizing device such as a jet mill, attribution mill, ball mill, Attritor grinding mill, ball mill, vibration mill, etc. or by an atomizing method such a gas atomizing method. The powder which is obtained by the publicly known method for manufacturing a powder or the powder which is manufactured by the atomizing method may be further pulverized for use. The particle-size distribution of the raw material powder or the shape of each particle forming the powder is adjustable by properly changing the pulverizing conditions and manufacturing conditions. Although the shape of the particle does not particularly matter, the closer it is to a sphere, the easier it is to get densification, and it is easy for the particle to rotate by application of a magnetic field. In the case of using the atomizing method, the powder with a high sphericalness can be obtained.

[0047] In the process of coarsely pulverizing the manufactured alloy strip, the strip is loaded into a vacuum furnace to be vacuum-exhausted and then maintained for 2 hours or more in a hydrogen atmosphere at room temperature so that hydrogen is absorbed into the strip. Subsequently, the strip is heated at 600 C. under a vacuum, to remove the hydrogen which is present in the strip. The particle size of the coarsely pulverized powder is 5001,000 m.

[0048] (2) Step of Finely Pulverizing the Rare Earth Alloy Powder

[0049] Generally, if the target average particle size is too small when the rare earth powder is pulverized on a crushing section of the jet mill, the powder stays for a long time in the crushing section of the jet mill and therefore the raw material powder becomes ultra-fine.

[0050] When the raw material powder is ultra-fine, the degree of alignment of the powder in a magnetic field is reduced during the compacting process in a magnetic field.

[0051] In the present invention, the jet milling process is performed many times, 2 or more times, to prevent the powder from being ultra-fine. The ultra-fine powder is minimized by repeating the pulverizing process 2 or more times, instead of minimizing the crushing time of the jet mill. Even though a small quantity of the ultra-fine powder results during the pulverizing process for a short time, the ultra-fine powder resulting from the pulverizing process is removed through the rotational speed of a cyclone in a proper classifying section during each pulverizing process whenever the jet milling is performed.

[0052] In the step of finely pulverizing the powder, the hydrogenated and coarsely pulverized powder, is pulverized using the jet mill technique. Nitrogen gas is supplied at high pressure to cause the collision among the powder particles to be more effectively pulverized. A uniform and fine powder with an average grain size of 15.0 M is prepared by the pulverizing method supplying the high-pressure nitrogen gas.

[0053] The coarsely pulverized powder is fed to the crushing section of the jet mill and nitrogen gas of 610 atm is ejected to the crashing section, so that the powder particles collide with one another to be pulverized.

[0054] The pulverized powder in an axial flow by an air current generating in a dust collecting section (not shown) is fed to the classifying section of the crushing section. A rotor for crushing and classifying the powder particles rotates in the classifying section, so that the powder in the classifying section is led to the outside of the classifying boundary layer by centrifugal force and a layer separation for classifying the powder particles is formed in the centrifugal force field. The pulverized powder is classified as coarse particles and fine particles under the influence of airflow and rotational speed. The centrifugal force and the drag force acting on the particles are generated in the direction of rotation radius in the classifying section. The centrifugal force is generated by the rotatory power in the classifying section, and the drag is generated when the particles are exposed to the airflow generated by the rotation in the classifying section.

[0055] The particles influenced by the centrifugal force are deflected to the coarse powder, and the pulverizing and classifying processes are repeated until the particles are classified through the recirculation pipe. The particles influenced by the drag force are deflected to the fine powder, to be moved through an outlet (not shown) to be collected.

[0056] The pulverizing process is performed 210 times. The rotational speed in the classifying section during each pulverizing process is 2,0008,000 rpm and the supply pressure of nitrogen gas is 610 atm.

[0057] The rotational speed in the classifying section during the primary pulverizing process is 2,0008,000 rpm and an average grain size of the rare earth powder discharged from the outlet in the classifying section is 315 m.

[0058] The primary pulverizing process is performed 29 times. After the primary pulverizing process, the rotational speed in the classifying section during the final pulverizing process is 8,000 rpm and an average grain size of the rare earth powder discharged from the outlet in the classifying section is 14 m.

[0059] The maximum particle size of the raw material powder pulverized using the jet mill is 5.0 M or less, preferably 14 m.

[0060] (3) Step of Aligning and Compacting the Finely Pulverized Rare Earth Alloy Powder in a Magnetic Field

[0061] A lubricant may be added to the raw material powder. In the case of using a mixture including a lubricant, since it becomes easy for each particle forming the raw material powder to rotate upon applying a magnetic field, it is easy to improve the alignment. Lubricants which have different material qualities and forms (liquid state, solid state) that do not substantially react with the raw material powder may be used. For example, liquid lubricants include ethanol, machine oil, silicone oil, castor oil, etc. and solid lubricants include metallic salts, such as zinc stearate, etc., hexagonal boron nitride, wax, etc. The amount of a liquid lubricant added is about 0.0110% by mass for the raw material powder of 100 g and the amount of the solid lubricant added is about 0.015% by mass for the mass of the raw material powder.

[0062] A mold in a desired shape and size is prepared to obtain a compact in the desired shape and size. A mold, which is used to manufacture the powder compact used as a material of the conventional sintered magnet and typically comprises a die, an upper punch and a lower punch, may be used. Otherwise, a cold isostatic press can be used.

[0063] When a mold is filled with the raw material powder at a packing density of 2.02.2 g/cc, the powder is completely aligned in a high magnetic field, which is generated by applying pulsed current to electromagnets positioned at the right and left of the mold, in a nitrogen atmosphere. Subsequently, compacting is performed simultaneously while maintaining the orientation of the powder which has been already completely aligned by a DC magnetic field generated by applying direct current, a static magnetic field of 2.0 Tesla, to manufacture the compact.

[0064] (4) Step of Performing the HDDR Process

[0065] In the HDDR process performing step, the magnetized compact is loaded into a vacuum furnace to remove the impure organic matters and then to be vacuum-exhausted, subsequently the compact is heated at 700900 C. and is maintained for 13 hours by changing the vacuum furnace atmosphere to the hydrogen atmosphere of 0.20.5 atm, to cause a layer separation from Nd.sub.2Fe.sub.14B, which is the main phase of the magnet, to NdH.sub.x+Fe+Fe.sub.2B. Then, the compact is heated at the same temperature for 10 minutes to 1 hour by changing the hydrogen atmosphere of 0.20.5 atm to the vacuum atmosphere, such that NdH.sub.x+Fe+Fe.sub.2B is recombined to be Nd.sub.2Fe.sub.14B, to form the powder with a fine crystal grain of 200300 nm in size.

[0066] (5) Step of Sintering

[0067] The compact is sintered under the sintering conditions of a temperature of 9001,200 C., for 48 hours, under a vacuum or in an argon atmosphere, etc. Preferably, the temperature range is 1,0001,100 C.

[0068] (6) Step of Heat-Treating

[0069] After the sintering step, the vacuum furnace atmosphere is changed to an argon atmosphere to rapidly cool the sintered compact.

[0070] After the cooling process, the compact is heat-treated at 400550 C. under a vacuum atmosphere for 13 hours and rapidly cooled by changing the vacuum furnace atmosphere to an argon atmosphere.

[0071] The present invention will be more specifically described with reference to the examples below:

EXAMPLE 1

[0072] In this Example, an alloy composed of 32wt % Nd-1 wt % B-2wt % TM-bal.wt % Fe (wherein TM is a 3d transition element) was melted, in an argon atmosphere, by an induction heating method and subsequently was rapidly cooled by a strip casting method, to prepare an alloy strip.

[0073] In the process of coarsely pulverizing the prepared alloy strip, the alloy strip was loaded into a vacuum furnace to be vacuum-exhausted and then maintained in a hydrogen atmosphere for 2 hours or more, to allow hydrogen to be absorbed into the alloy strip. Subsequently, the alloy strip was heated at 600 C. under a vacuum, to remove hydrogen present in the alloy strip. The powder is pulverized to the particles of 5001000 m in size.

[0074] The hydrogenated and coarsely pulverized powder was prepared as a uniform and fine powder by the pulverizing method using the jet mill technique. The process of preparing the alloy strip as the fine powder was performed in a nitrogen or inert gas atmosphere, to prevent the deterioration of magnetic properties by contamination of oxygen.

[0075] The coarsely pulverized alloy powder was fed to the crushing section of the jet mill by ejecting nitrogen gas of 7 atm such that the powder particles collide one another to be pulverized.

[0076] The pulverized powder taking passage in the axial flow by the airflow generated in the dust collecting section (not shown) was fed to the classifying section of the crushing section.

[0077] The rotational speed in the classifying section during the fine pulverizing process was fixed to 8,000 rpm and the average particle size of the primarily finely pulverized powder was about 3.5 m.

[0078] The process of comparing the fine rare earth powder finely pulverized by the jet mill is performed in a magnetic field. The mold was filled with the rare earth powder a packing density of 2.02.2 g/cc. A static magnetic field of 2.0 Tesla was applied to the electromagnets positioned at the right and left of the mold, to align the rare earth powder unidirectionally. Simultaneously, the pressure of upper and lower punches was applied to make a compact.

[0079] The compact obtained by the compacting process in a magnetic field was loaded in a vacuum heating furnace and maintained under a vacuum atmosphere and 400 C. or below, to completely remove the remaining impure organic matters, and subsequently heated at 800 C. and maintained for 2 hours by changing the vacuum furnace atmosphere to a hydrogen atmosphere of 0.3 atm, to form a layer separation from, Nd.sub.2Fe.sub.14B, the main phase of the magnet, to NdH.sub.x+Fe+Fe.sub.2B. Subsequently, the compact was heated at the same temperature for 30 minutes by changing the hydrogen atmosphere of 0.3 atm to a vacuum atmosphere, such that NdH.sub.x+Fe+Fe.sub.2B was recombined as Nd.sub.2Fe.sub.14B, to form fine crystal grains which were each 200300 nm in size in the powder.

[0080] The compact was sintered and densified under the sintering conditions of a temperature of 1,0201,050 C., for 48 hours, under a vacuum or in an argon atmosphere, etc.

[0081] After the sintering and densifying process, the sintered compact was rapidly cooled by changing the vacuum furnace atmosphere to an argon atmosphere.

[0082] After the cooling process, the compact was heat-treated at 470 C. under a vacuum atmosphere for 2 hours. After the heat-treatment was finished and rapidly cooled by changing the atmosphere of the vacuum furnace to an argon atmosphere.

[0083] In the comparative example of Table 1, the jet milling process was performed only once and the speed of a classifier was fixed as 8,000 rpm for classification. The average particle size in the prepared powder for use was 3.5 m. No HDDR process was performed in the comparative example.

[0084] In the exemplary embodiment, the jet milling process was performed only once and the speed of a classifier was fixed as 8,000 rpm for classification. The average particle size in the prepared powder for use was 3.5 m. The HDDR process was performed in the exemplary embodiment.

[0085] In Table 1, the magnetic properties in the comparative example and the exemplary embodiment were obtained by the respective loops by applying the maximum magnetic field of 30 kOe using the BH loop tracer. The results are stated in Table 1.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Processes from compacting to sintering Magnetic properties Whether Residual Maximum to perform magnetic magnetic Compacting HDDR Sintering flux density Coercivity, energy Sample condition process condition (kG) (kOe) (MGOe) Comparative Applied N 1,050 C. 13.5 15.1 44.5 example magnetic *4 hous field: 2 Tesla Exemplary Applied Y 1,020 C. 13.4 18.5 44.0 embodiment magnetic *8 hous field: 2 Tesla

[0086] In Table 1, it is noticed that the comparative example without the HDDR process and the exemplary embodiment with the HDDR process are relatively highly different in respect to the coercivity. The reason to obtain the above results is that the crystal grains were micronized to improve the magnetic properties of the rare earth sintered magnet according to a temperature and to improve the coercivity at a room temperature.

[0087] While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to examples thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various modifications and alternative arrangements in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims. The scope of the claims, therefore, should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements. For example, the compositions of the raw material powders, the shape or size of the compact, the rate of applying a magnetic field, the sintering conditions, etc. may be properly modified.