Lets Get Technical NdFeB Neodymium Iron Boron Magnets
Brett Bringardner
An Introduction to Neodymium Magnets
Neodymium Magnets are made from an alloy containing, amongst others, the elements Neodymium, Iron and Boron (NdFeB). The NdFeB magnets are the strongest type of magnet commercially available and are manufactured in a wide range of shapes, sizes and grades. We offer 47 grades of licensed Neodymium Iron Boron with 25 types of surface /coating finish for each grade.
The NdFeB magnets are anisotropic sintered magnets – the alloy is jet milled to a fine powder and is then compacted in the presence of a magnetic field to give it a preferred direction of magnetisation (making it anisotropic in performance). The NdFeB magnets are then sintered to fuse the powder together before final machining and magnetising produces the completed super strength Neodymium magnet.
The Neodymium magnets are also known as Neo magnets, Neodymium Iron Boron magnets, Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnets, NdBFe magnets, NdFeB magnets, NIB magnets, Super Strength magnets and Rare Earth magnets (please note that SmCo is also called a Rare Earth magnet). NdFeB is called a Rare Earth magnet because the Neodymium is a Rare Earth element, having a value of 60 on the Periodic Table. For note, there is nothing rare about Rare Earth magnets – the required elements are readily available and the NdFeB magnets are produced in several hundreds of tonnes each year.
The Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) magnets were developed just over 25 years ago and were first commercially available in 1984. Neodymium magnets were initially developed for voice coil motors in computer hard disk drives and this market still accounts for over 50 percent of all Neodymium magnets produced. Other applications include high performance motors, brushless DC motors, generators, magnetic separation, magnetic resonance imaging, sensors and loudspeakers. They are becoming increasingly popular across a wide range of novelty products such as fridge magnets and all kinds of magnetically attachable gadgets for retail markets.
http://www.ndfeb-info.com/ for the full Monty on Neodymium magnets.