History and Manufacturing Techniques
In 1982, General Motors (GM) and Sumitomo Special Metals discovered the Nd2Fe14B compound. The effort was principally driven by the high material cost of the SmCo permanent magnets, which had been developed earlier. GM focused on the development of melt-spun nanocrystalline Nd2Fe14B magnets, while Sumitomo developed full-density sintered Nd2Fe14B magnets. GM commercialized its inventions of isotropic Neo powder, bonded Neo magnets, and the related production processes by founding Magnequench in 1986. Magnequench, now part of the Neo Materials Technology, Inc., supplies melt-spun Nd2Fe14B powder to bonded magnet manufacturers. The Sumitomo facility has become part of the Hitachi Corporation and currently manufactures and licenses other companies to produce sintered Nd2Fe14B magnets. Hitachi holds more than 600 patents covering Neodymium magnets.
Sintered Nd2Fe14B tends to be vulnerable to corrosion. In particular, corrosion along grain boundaries may cause deterioration of a sintered magnet. This problem is addressed in many commercial products by adding a protective coating. Nickel plating or two-layered copper-nickel plating are the standard methods, although plating with other metals or polymer and lacquer protective coatings is also in use.
Read more about this topic: Neodymium Magnet
Famous quotes containing the words history and, history and/or techniques:
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“It is easy to lose confidence in our natural ability to raise children. The true techniques for raising children are simple: Be with them, play with them, talk to them. You are not squandering their time no matter what the latest child development books say about “purposeful play” and “cognitive learning skills.””
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)