Neodymium magnet 3 production

There are two principal neodymium magnet manufacturing methods:

• Classical powder metallurgy or sintered magnet process[11]
  
• Rapid solidification or bonded magnet process
  

Sintered Nd-magnets are prepared by the raw materials being melted in a furnace, cast into a mold and cooled to form ingots. The ingots are pulverized and milled; the powder is then sintered into dense blocks. The blocks are then heat-treated, cut to shape, surface treated and magnetized.

Bonded Nd-magnets are prepared by melt spinning a thin ribbon of the NdFeB alloy. The ribbon contains randomly oriented Nd2Fe14B nano-scale grains. This ribbon is then pulverized into particles, mixed with a polymer, and either compression- or injection-molded into bonded magnets. Bonded magnets offer less flux intensity than sintered magnets, but can be net-shape formed into intricately shaped parts, as is typical with Halbach arrays or arcs, trapezoids and other shapes and assemblies (e.g. Pot Magnets, Separator Grids, etc.).[15][not in citation given] There are approximately 5,500 tons of Neo bonded magnets produced each year.[when?][citation needed] In addition, it is possible to hot-press the melt spun nanocrystalline particles into fully dense isotropic magnets, and then upset-forge or back-extrude these into high-energy anisotropic magnets.