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Effect of Cu and powder mixing with Cu-free (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B jet-milled powder on the magnetic properties of sintered magnets was investigated. The coercivity of a magnet prepared from the Cu-free (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B powder was about 10 kOe even though the alloy powder already contained some Dy (3.5 wt%). When small copper powder was blended, however, the coercivity of the magnet increased almost 100%, exhibiting about 20 kOe. On the contrary, the coercivity enhancement was moderate, about 4 kOe, when dysprosium content in the sintered magnet was simply increased to 4.9 wt% by the addition of small 3 powder.

In order to improve the remanence of (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B sintered magnets, we investigated the influence of compaction conditions such as packing density, applied field and green density on the magnetic properties. While the remanence decreased with increasing the packing density and green density, it increased with the increase of the applied field. In addition, XRD analysis revealed that the remanence was enhanced as the degree of powder alignment was improved. The green density was more influential on the remanence than the packing density and applied field.

In order to increase the coercivity of (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B sintered magnets without much reduction of remanence, small amount of Dy compounds such as and was mixed with (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B powder. After mixing, the coercivity of (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B sintered magnets apparently increased with the increase of Dy compound in the mixture. Addition of was more effective than for the improvement of coercivity. Reduction of the remanence by the addition of Dy compound, however, was larger than expected mostly due to unresolved coarse Dy compound in the magnet. EPMA analysis revealed that Dy was diffused throughout the grains in the magnet mixed with whereas Dy was rather concentrated around grain boundaries in the magnet mixed with .