{"id":1066,"date":"2022-07-25T12:17:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T12:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2024-09-30T12:57:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T12:57:30","slug":"how-are-neodymium-magnets-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/how-are-neodymium-magnets-made\/","title":{"rendered":"How Are Neodymium Magnets Made?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Neodymium<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Neodymium magnets are technological marvels and the process of creating them is sophisticated and delicate. The main ingredients of a neodymium magnet are neodymium itself, iron, and boron; the chemical compound known as NdFeb. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exact ingredients depend on the grade or strength of the magnet being produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the production process for different strength magnets sees the same size and different stages required to produce a neodymium magnet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Step 1 \u2013 The Mix<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, all the elements to make the chosen grade of a magnet are placed into a vacuum induction furnace, heated and melted to form the alloy material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This mixture is then cooled to form ingots before being ground into tiny grains in a jet mill. Each grain is typically only three microns in size, smaller than a red blood cell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Mixing\"<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Step 2 \u2013 Pressed<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The super-fine powder is then pressed into a mould and at the same time, magnetic energy is applied to the mould.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnetism comes from a coil of wire that acts like a magnet when an electrical current is passed through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the mixture is pressed, the direction of magnetism is locked in! When the particle structure of the magnet matches the direction of magnetism, this is called an anisotropic magnet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Pressed\"<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Step 3 \u2013 Sintered<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t the end of the process, instead, at this point, the magnetised material is demagnetised and will be re-magnetised later in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage, the material would be far too soft and crumbly to be useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step is for the material to be heated, almost until the melting point in a process called sintering which makes the powdered magnet particles fuse together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This process takes place in an oxygen-free, inert environment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Sintering\"<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Step 4 \u2013 Cooled & Machined<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Almost there, the heated material gets rapidly cooled using a technique known as quenching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This rapid cooling process minimises areas of poor magnetism and maximises performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the stage when the raw magnets are machined into their desired shape, however, because they are so hard diamond plated cutting tools are needed!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Cooled<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Step 5 \u2013 A coat for all applications<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The last step before the material is re-magnetised is vital. Because neodymium magnets are so hard, making them prone to breaking and chipping, they must be coated, cleaned, dried and plated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many different types of coating that are used with neodymium magnets, the most common being a nickel-copper-nickel mixture but they can be coated in other metals and even rubber or PTFE.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Coating\"<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Step 6 \u2013 Magnetised<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once plated, the finished material is re-magnetised by placing it inside a coil, which, when an electric current is passed through it produces a magnetic field three times stronger than the required strength of the magnet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is such a powerful process that if the magnet is not held in place it can be flung from the coil like a bullet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Magnetised\"<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Shop Neodymium Magnets:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\"Disc<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Buy Neodymium Disc Magnets<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Rectangular<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Buy Rectangular Neodymium Magnets<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Sel-Adhesive<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Buy Adhesive Neodymium Magnets<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Countersunk<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Buy Countersunk Neodymium Magnets<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neodymium magnets are technological marvels and the process of creating them is sophisticated and delicate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[93,7,8,61,62],"class_list":["post-1066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-are-magnets-made","tag-how-are-magnets-made","tag-magnets","tag-magnets-us","tag-neodymium","tag-neodymium-magnets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3710,"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions\/3710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.first4magnets.com\/us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}