A Comparative Study between Low and High-Energy Milling Processes for the Production of HD PrFeCoBNb Sintered Magnets

Roller-ball milling (RBM) or planetary ball milling (PBM) have been used together with the hydrogen decrepitation (HD) process to produce sintered permanent magnets based on a mixture of Pr16Fe76B8 and Pr14.00Fe63.90Co16.00B6.00Nb0.10 magnetic alloys. Five distinct compositions have been studied comparing low- and high-energy milling. Magnets with a particular composition and prepared using these two routes exhibited similar magnetic properties. Modifications have been carried out in the procedure of the HD stage for PBM in order to guarantee a high degree of crystallographic alignment. Pr15.00Fe69.95Co8.00B7.00Nb0.05 magnets showed the best maximum energy product for both processing routes (~ 247 kJm-3). A significant reduction in the milling time (93%) has been achieved with high-energy processing, the greatest advantage over the low-energy route.