History of neodymium magnets

In 1982, General Motors Corporation, Sumitomo Special Metals, and the China Academy of Science discovered the Nd2Fe14B compound. The effort was principally driven by the high material cost of the SmCo permanent neodymium magnets, which had been developed earlier. General Motors focused on the development of melt-spun nanocrystalline Nd2Fe14B magnets, while Sumitomo developed full density sintered Nd2Fe14B magnets. General Motors Corporation commercialized its inventions of isotropic neodymium magnets powder, bonded neodymium magnetsand the related production processes by founding Magnequench in 1986. Magnequench is now part of the Neo Materials Technology Inc. and 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 neodymium magnets.