Welcome to a lecture with Dr. Masato Sagawa, Daido Steel Co., Ltd., Japan, who invented one of the world’s strongest magnets.
The neodymium based magnet, which is constructed as a chemical compound consisting of iron, boron, and the rare earth metal neodymium, is today the most widely used permanent magnet, with important applications for a green energy transition. It is the strongest permanent magnet we have and therefore fulfills an important function in industry. Over 200 thousand tons of Nd2Fe14B are produced each year, with a sales volume equivalent to ~30 billion dollars. Two types of such magnets were developed simultaneously at General Motors, USA, and Sumitomo Special Metals, Japan, in the 1980s. Behind the Japanese invention was Dr. Masato Sagawa, who is now coming to Sweden and giving a unique lecture at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences about the discovery, industrialization and basic research on neodymium magnets.
The event is free of charge and open to the public but registration is required. The symposium will also be live-streamed on this wepbage. Please note that registration is only required for participation in person.
Abstract
Nd-Fe-B magnet is the strongest permanent magnet today and has been giving great contributions to our society. Two types of Nd-Fe-B magnets were developed and produced industrially in early 1980s as sintered magnets by Sumitomo Special Metals (SSM) and as resin bonded and hot deformed magnets made from rapidly solidified alloys by Magnequench of General Motors. In this talk, I talk about the early-stage phase of my invention of the sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets. In the 1970s, when Sm-Co magnets were making great strides, my employer at that time gave me a research topic to improve the mechanical strength of Sm-Co magnets. During the course of my research, I came up with the idea that rare earth (R) magnets should be R-Fe magnets. While working on my official research topic, I continued to search for R-Fe magnets as an informal research topic, and came up with the idea of Nd-Fe-B magnets. I pursued the idea by moving to a permanent magnet manufacturer, SSM. Soon after I joined the company, Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets took shape, and one of the samples achieved the world’s highest (BH)max. I worked with SSM engineers to industrialize this Nd-Fe-B sintered magnet. The first academic presentation on Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets was given at the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM) Conference in 1983. At this conference, in addition to my group, four other research groups from the United States gave presentations on Nd-Fe-B magnet alloys. All of them were about Nd-Fe-B magnet alloys made by the rapid solidification method. While struggling for the industrialization of Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets, my group in SSM also promoted basic research on magnetic physics and materials science of the magnet such as X-ray diffraction analysis of crystal structure of the Nd-Fe-B compound, preparation of single crystal samples of various R-Fe-B compounds, and high-field magnetic measurements on them in a joint research project with my alma mater, Tohoku University. My group in SSM also had open collaborations, including construction of the important part of Nd-Fe-B ternary phase diagram with Kyoto University and analysis of coercivity mechanism with European institutions.
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