With the intention of establishing fabrication methods for cheaply produced (Fe,Co)-Cr-B-R-type bonded magnets or (Fe,Co)-Cr-B-R-M-type bonded magnets containing few
rare earth elements and having a coercive force iHc above 5 kOe and a residual
magnetic flux density Br above 5.5 kG matching the
cost performance of hard ferrite magnets, we have obtained iron-based permanent magnets consisting of microcrystal clusters where the average
crystal size of each component phase is in the range 1 nm DIFFERENCE 30 nm and where both a soft
magnetic phase consisting of a ferromagnetic
alloy whose main components are alpha -Fe and a ferromagnetic
alloy having iron, and a hard
magnetic phase having a Nd2Fe14B-type
crystal structure coexist within the same
powder particles, by melt-
quenching of a (Fe,Co)-Cr-B-R(Pr,Nd)-type
molten alloy or a (Fe,Co)-Cr-B-R-M (M=Al,Si,S,Ni, Cu,Zn,Ga,Ag,Pt,Au,Pb)-type
molten alloy of a particular composition containing few
rare earth elements, to obtain an essentially amorphous structure or a structure both amorphous and with small amounts of fine crystals, and by applying a
crystallization heat treatment under specific conditions. By
grinding this iron-based permanent
magnet to an average
powder particle size of 3 mu m DIFFERENCE 500 mu m and combining the
resultant iron-based permanent
magnet alloy powder with a resin, we can obtain an iron-based bonded
magnet with good thermal and magnetic properties and with the magnetic characteristics iHc> / =5 kOe, Br> / =5.5 kG and (BH)max> / =6 MGOe.