Magnets of various types are widespread in the life of a modern person. They are found not only in children's toys, but are also used in most industrial sectors, including space. Therefore, it is very important to familiarize yourself with their interesting varieties, one of which is a neodymium magnet (photo below).
What is it (opening story)
The neodymium magnet, other names for which are NIB, NdFeB or Neo, is a super-powerful magnetic structure based on alloys of iron, boron and neodymium. The formation of such a compound results in the formation of a tetragonal-type Nd2Fe14B crystal structure. It was first obtained in 1982 by joint efforts of American and Japanese scientists.
In practice, neodymium magnets can be obtained in the following two ways:
- In the first case, the components in powder form are mixed, and then a thermal oven is placed. There they are baked under high pressure and at a temperature of about 1200 degrees.
- When using the second technique, the mixture is injected in a heated form into a special polymer, after which it is molded.
Any of these options allows you to obtain a complete product with unique magnetic properties.
Pros and cons
When using powerful magnets for various purposes, be sure to take into account their strengths and weaknesses.
The first are:
- the strength of the magnetic field they create is many times higher than the same indicator for an ordinary magnet.
- this product is available both commercially and for the private user;
- its natural demagnetization is very small (for 10 years it “loses” only 1-2%);
- the areas of application of these products are very diverse.
To this should be added the small size and low weight of the neodymium structure (photo below).
The disadvantages of such magnets include:
- if handled incorrectly, they can damage the elements of metal structures and harm human health (therefore, it is strictly forbidden to give them to children);
- the coupled magnets can be disengaged with great difficulty, which in certain situations seems to be a disadvantage;
- the magnetic field they create can harm nearby electronic devices and devices.
Moreover, the brittleness of the material of the magnets makes them very sensitive to mechanical stress. And when the ambient temperature exceeds a certain value, these products lose their magnetic properties.
Application area
The scope of application of magnets of this class is wide enough and it is easier to list the places where they are not used. The simplest household example is neodymium with a hook for hanging kitchen items or heavier things (photo below).
The following are other places where they are used very widely:
- in farms, large neodymium magnets are used to collect metal objects from the fields;
- in everyday life - for gluing the surfaces of flat workpieces, which are clamped between two magnets;
- in the technical field - for cleaning machine oil from metal shavings.
In addition, in medical practice, they are part of the devices for magnetic resonance imaging, for example.