Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of Recycled Nd-Fe-B Magnets with Blending of Ce-Rich Alloy

Waste Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets (grade 33H) were recycled to manufacture anisotropic sintered magnets by adding Ce-rich alloys. The influences of additive amounts of Ce-rich alloys on the microstructure and magnetic properties of the recycled sintered magnets were investigated. It showed that the recycled sintered Nd-Fe-B magnet without Ce-rich alloy addition has rather lower density; the density of the magnet is slightly raised with increased sintering temperature, but the recycled magnet is prone to oxidation, even cracking. For recycled sintered magnets with Ce-rich alloy addition, the densities of the magnets are upgraded with increasing amounts of Ce-rich alloy, and the magnetic properties are obviously improved. This suggests that Ce-rich alloy plays the important role of sintering-aid in the densification of the recycled magnet. However, the coercivity (H-cj) of the recycled magnets is decreased, when the additive amounts of Ce-rich alloy are over 8 wt.%. This is probably because excessive Ce-rich alloy addition can cause RE-rich phase aggregation at the triple grain boundary junctions, and deteriorate the microstructure of the recycled magnets. The recycled magnet with 5 wt.% Ce-rich alloy, sintered at 1080 degrees C, exhibits the following optimal magnetic properties: B-r of 11.67 kGs; H-cj of 18.94 kOe; and maximum energy product [(BH)(max)] of 33.1 MGOe. The magnetic properties of the recycled magnets are comparative to those of the waste magnets. Recycled magnets have a higher coercivity and perfect squareness of demagnetization curve (H-k/H-cj = 0.972).