Laser powder bed fusion of NdFeB and influence of powder bed heating on density and magnetic properties

Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is an additive manufacturing technique that provides an opportunity to create complex NdFeB magnets, potentially enhancing their performance. L-PBF possesses its own processing challenges, such as porosity/cracks and thermal stresses due to rapid cooling. This study focused on optimizing the parameters and the use of elevated temperature (300–550 °C) powder bed heating to reduce defect generation. This paper includes a detailed process parameter investigation, which revealed samples with a maximum energy product, (BH)max, of 81 kJ/m3 (remanence, Br 0.72 T; coercivity, Hci 891 kA/m) without post/pretreatment, which are the highest (BH)max and Br for L-PBF-processed NdFeB commercial powder. It was observed that all the high-magnetism samples possessed high density, but not all the high-density samples possessed high magnetism. The SEM images and discussions are academically valuable since they clearly illustrate grain formation and morphology in the melt pool, areas where the literature provides limited discussion. Furthermore, this paper incorporates quantitative phase analyses, revealing that the magnetic properties increase with increasing volume fraction of the strong magnetic phase Nd2Fe14B. Another significant contribution of this paper is that it is the first study to investigate the effect of heated bed on L-PBF-NdFeB alloys. The density of the samples and Br can be improved with the use of elevated powder bed heating, while the Hc decreases. The (BH)max can also be improved from 55 to 84 kJ/m3 through elevated powder bed heating. The maximum magnetic properties obtained with the heated bed (400 °C) were as follows: Br, 0.76 T; Hci, 750 kA/m; and (BH)max, 84 kJ/m3.