Recycling of additively printed anisotropic Nd-Fe-B bonded magnets.

• Recycled and remanufactured magnets with properties comparable to that of original magnets. • Additively manufactured neodymium iron boron bonded permanent magnets. • Economical and environmentally friendly method. • Conservation of critical rare earth elements. A high potential cost-effective and environmentally friendly method has been applied for recycling anisotropic Nd-Fe-B bonded magnets. Waste additively printed Hydrogenation-Disproportionation-Desorption-Recombination (HDDR) Nd-Fe-B anisotropic bonded magnet was pulverized into composite powder containing Nd-Fe-B particles and nylon binder through cryomilling at a liquid nitrogen temperature (∼77 K) under Ar inert atmosphere. Then, the cryomilled composite powder was warm compacted into a bonded magnet. The magnetic particles were aligned during post-compaction annealing under a magnetic field of 30 kOe. The recycled bonded magnets have a higher density (3 % enhancement), but slightly inferior magnetic properties compared to the original magnets, i.e., the magnetic remanence, coercivity and maximum energy product are reduced by 2 %, 3 % and 8 %, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy revealed that some HDDR Nd-Fe-B powder crumbled into fine particles during cryomilling. Powder X-ray diffraction showed a small amount of Nd-oxide impurity in the cryomilled powder. The slightly deteriorated magnetic properties are ascribed to the oxidation of Nd-Fe-B particles due to formation of fresh fracture surface during cryomilling. The approach enables the direct reuse of end-of-life bonded magnets in an economical and environmentally friendly way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]