Highly dense and magnetically anisotropic rare earth bonded magnets have been fabricated via packing bimodal magnetic particles using a batch extrusion process followed by compression molding technology. The bimodal feedstock was a 96 wt% magnet powder mixture, with 40% being anisotropic Sm-Fe-N (3 μm) and 60% being anisotropic Nd-Fe-B (100 μm) as fine and coarse particles, respectively; these were blended with a 4 wt% polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) polymer binder to fabricate the bonded magnets. The hybrid bonded magnet with an 81 vol% magnet loading yielded a density of 6.15 g cm-3 and a maximum energy product (BH)m of 20.0 MGOe at 300 K. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that the fine-sized Sm-Fe-N particles filled the gap between the large Nd-Fe-B particles. Rietveld analysis of the X-ray diffraction data showed that the relative contents of the Nd2Fe14B and Sm2Fe17N3 phases were 61% and 39%, respectively, in the hybrid bonded magnet. The PPS binder coated most of the magnetic particles homogeneously. Compared with the magnetic properties of the initial Nd-Fe-B and Sm-Fe-N powders, the reduction in the remanence, from the demagnetization curve, is ascribed to the dilution effect of the binder, the non-perfect alignment, and the internal magnetic stray field.
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