Effects of tensile loading during annealing of alnico melt spun ribbons

Conventional magnetic annealing (MA) of the permanent magnet alloy alnico involves application of an external magnetic field at temperatures within the spinodal decomposition range. This field biases the growth of the Fe-Co rich, ferromagnetic α1-phase in an energetically favorable 〈001〉 direction in alignment with the applied field within an Al-Ni rich, paramagnetic α2-phase. Utilizing a magnetic field to bias the α1-phase may limit alnico from reaching theoretical coercivity due to (1) the field having maximum biasing ability at temperatures near the Curie temperature where large α1-phase nanorods form and (2) connectivity of the α1-phase occurs unavoidably during MA. Both decrease the effective shape anisotropy of the α1-phase, thereby reducing coercivity. Herein, we explore tensile-loading as a biasing mechanism to control and optimize the final alnico nanostructure beyond that achieved by MA. Two samples of melt-spun alnico were heat-treated at 860 °C for 5 minutes: one sample was subjected to 10 MPa tensile stress for comparison with a stress-free control sample. Structural and magnetic characterization revealed that the stress-annealed ribbon sample possessed expected phase assemblages, but was distinguished by a ∼2× larger grain diameter and an elongated anisotropic α1-phase within grains that were oriented to a shear stress along 〈001〉 directions at an angle of ∼45° relative to the loading direction. Both types of annealing produced a similar increase in the coercivity and remanence, but a decrease in saturation magnetization.