The development of high energy product permanent magnets from 2:17 RE-TM alloys

Methods are presented for estimating the upper bounds for the saturation magnetization and energy product of 2:17 RE-TM permanent magnets as a function of their composition. It is shown that appropriate compositional adjustments to raise the saturation induction and heat treatment adjustments to raise the intrinsic coercivity are not straightforward due to the strongly interactive nature of the system variables. Refinements to a model describing the metallurgical behavior of these alloy systems suggest a way to exercise a large degree of control over the phase composition of the alloys and, consequently, over their magnetic properties.