ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION The permanent magnet business is radically changing since the introduction of new magnetic materials with high magnetization and high intrinsic coercivity. These materials contain one or more rare earth elements and a transition metal. The resulting crystal structure has only one axis of easy magnetization with very high anisotropy energy. This high anisotropy energy, along with suitable microstructure, results in the very high intrinsic coercivity found in the rare earth permanent magnet materials.
