As Rare Earth magnets, Samarium Cobalt (SmCo) and Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) magnets are alloys of the Lanthanide group of elements. SmCo magnets are available in a number of different grades that span a wide rang of application requirements.
Samarium Cobalt (SmCo) magnets offer designers a tremendous combination of extremely high magnetic properties, outstanding thermal stability and excellent corrosion resistance. They include rare earth SmCo5 and Sm2Co17. SmCo magnets are available in sintered as well as bonded forms.

 

Sintered - fine SmCo powder is compacted in a die and then sintered, fusing the powder into a solid material. There are two forms of pressing: die pressing (which involves a hard die into which the powder is placed and then pressed), and isostatic pressing (involving a special "rubber" die into which powder is placed and then pressed with equal force in all directions on the powder). Die pressed parts are smaller than isostatically pressed parts. Although the magnetic properties of isostatically pressed parts are higher, the uniformity of magnetic characteristics is usually lower than that of die pressed parts. Sintered parts usually need some finish machining in order to meet

  Sintered Samarium Cobalt

 

 

Compression Bonded - this is a technique whereby a special form of SmCo powder is blended with a plastic carrier material, die pressed and then heated. Parts made in this way can be of complex shapes and come off the tool with close tolerances, requiring no further finish machining. They have lower energy products than sintered materials - currently in the range of 15 MGOe.