Alnico

Alnico magnet material is made by alloying aluminum, nickel and cobalt with iron. Some grades also contain copper and/or titanium. The alloying process is casting or sintering. These constituents, the process and the heat treatment needed to optimize magnetic properties produces hard (Rc45) and brittle parts that are best shaped or finished by abrasive grinding. Cast parts are generally under 70 pounds and may be used as-is, but polar surfaces are usually ground flat and parallel. Sintering is confined to high volume parts in sizes under one cubic inch and an effective press length to diameter ratio under four.

To minimize the volume of magnet material required by an application, the entire magnetic circuit must be considered. An optimized circuit design results in a circuit permeance coefficient that causes the magnet to operate above the knee of its demagnetization curve by a margin large enough to offset anticipated operating demagnetizing effects. Optimized steel components result in an effective magnetic length greater than the magnet itself, but this is only effective if the magnet can be magnetized after assembly into the circuit. The alternate is to design the magnet shape to produce a load line, on its own, that intersects the BH curve above its knee, so minimal flux is lost due to the self demagnetizing factor upon removal from the magnetizing fixture. In either case, a magnetizing force of 3.0 kOe must be applied to Alnico 5 magnets and 7.0 kOe for Alnico 8. When magnetized in a magnetic circuit, the magnetizing pulse must be wide enough to allow eddy currents in the steel to decay before dropping below these values.