Development of improved powder for bonded permanent magnets

Modified high-pressure gas atomization (HPGA) produces spherical, rapidly solidified powder, which is more suitable for bonded magnet processing. He atomization produced powder in the diameter <45 /spl mu/m size that has a glassy fraction comparable to melt-spun ribbon quenched from about 16 m/s. Differences in magnetic properties are attributed to differences in solidification microstructures.