Lab scale additive manufacturing of Fe-Nd-B based powders was performed to realize bulk nanocrystalline Fe-Nd-B based permanent magnets. For fabrication a special inert gas process chamber for laser powder bed fusion was used. Inspired by the nanocrystalline ribbon structures, well-known from melt-spinning, the concept was successfully transferred to the additive manufactured parts. For example, for Nd16.5-Pr1.5-Zr2.6-Ti2.5-Co2.2-Fe65.9-B8.8 (excess rare earth (RE) = Nd, Pr; the amount of additives was chosen following Magnequench (MQ) powder composition) a maximum coercivity of µ0Hc = 1.16 T, remanence Jr = 0.58 T and maximum energy density of (BH)max = 62.3 kJ/m3 have been achieved. The most important prerequisite to develop nanocrystalline printed parts with good magnetic properties is to enable rapid solidification during selective laser melting. This is made possible by a shallow melt pool during laser melting. Melt pool depths as low as 20 to 40 µm have been achieved. The printed bulk nanocrystalline Fe-Nd-B based permanent magnets have the potential to realize magnets known so far as polymer bonded magnets without polymer.

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Permanent magnets based on FePrCuB were realized on a laboratory scale through additive manufacturing (laser powder bed fusion, L-PBF) and book mold casting (reference). A well-adjusted two-stage heat treatment of the as-cast/as-printed FePrCuB alloys produces hard magnetic properties without the need for subsequent powder metallurgical processing. This resulted in a coercivity of 0.67 T, remanence of 0.67 T and maximum energy density of 69.8 kJ/m3 for the printed parts. While the annealed book-mold-cast FePrCuB alloys are easy-plane permanent magnets (BMC magnet), the printed magnets are characterized by a distinct, predominantly directional microstructure that originated from the AM process and was further refined during heat treatment. Due to the higher degree of texturing, the L-PBF magnet has a 26% higher remanence compared to the identically annealed BMC magnet of the same composition.

Lab‐scale additive manufacturing of (CoCuFeZr)17Sm2‐based powder is carried out to realize CoSm‐printed parts with hard magnetic properties.  For manufacturing a special inert gas, process chamber for laser powder bed fusion is used. A three‐step annealing procedure analogous to sintered magnets is applied. This leads to a coercivity of 2.77 T, remanence of 0.78 T, and maximum energy density of 109.4 kJ m−3 for the printed parts. Compared with an isotropic sintered magnet of comparable composition and annealing procedure, the coercivity is of the same order. Due to the texture of the printed parts, the remanence is 24 % larger.

Fe-Nd-B powders were processed by additive manufacturing using laboratory scale selective laser melting to produce bulk nanocrystalline permanent magnets. The manufacturing process was carried out in a specially developed process chamber under Ar atmosphere. This resulted in novel types of microstructures with micrometer scale clusters of nanocrystalline hard magnetic grains. Owing to this microstructure, a maximum coercive field strength (coercivity) μ0Hc of 1.16 T, a remanence Jr of 0.58 T, and a maximum energy product (BH)max of 62.3 kJ/mm3could, for example, be obtained for the composition Nd16.5-Pr1.5-Zr2.6-Ti2.5-Co2.2-Fe65.9-B8.8.