A Prospective Observation of Bonded Rare-Earth Magnets

In 1991, recorded production of bonded rare-earth magnets was 32 times as high as in 1981. To determine the reason for this rapid growth, an industrial and technical review of the last decade is made. The results show that the growth can be attributed to three major factors: the appearance of a large new market in the 1980's, development of novel materials with high performance, and successive efforts to apply them. Next important technical aspects of bonded rare earth magnets are surveyed to gain an under standing of the current status of the technology. It is pointed out that little attention has been paid to bonding technology, which is as important as the magnetic materials for realizing high-performance bonded rare-earth magnets. Finally, an attempt is made to forecast future industrial and technological trends for bonded rare-earth magnets.