Coercivity enhancement of HDDR-processed Nd–Fe–B permanent magnet with the rapid hot-press consolidation process

High coercivity, fully dense anisotropic permanent magnets of submicron grain sizes were produced by rapid hot-press consolidation of hydrogenation–disproportionation–desorption–recombination (HDDR) processed Nd–Fe–Co–B powders. In the hot-press process, the coercivity of the consolidated material showed a sharp minimum prior to full densification. Thereafter, it reached a value 25% higher than that of the initial powder. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy observations revealed that the variation in HcJ was caused by a redistribution of Nd along the grain boundaries during hot pressing and that the high coercivity was attributable to the formation of thin, continuous Nd-rich phase along the grain boundaries.