MAGELLAN partner TU Darmstadt participated in INTERMAG 2026, the IEEE International Magnetics Conference, held in Manchester, UK, from 13 to 17 April 2026. Within the session “NdFeB Based Hard Magnetic Materials”, chaired by A. Aubert from TU Darmstadt, Imants Dirba presented the contribution “From Strategic Grain Boundary Diffusion to Segmentation: a Novel Production Route for Resource-Efficient Nd–Fe–B Magnets”. The presentation focused on MAGELLAN-supported research carried out by TU Darmstadt, addressing one of the key challenges in permanent magnet development: how to reduce reliance on critical rare earth elements while maintaining the high magnetic performance required for clean energy and e-mobility applications.
The presented work disseminated project-relevant research on a new processing route for resource-efficient Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets. The approach combines grain boundary diffusion with segmented magnet architectures, using a thin low-melting Tb-Pr-Al-Cu-Ga alloy layer that acts both as a binder between magnet segments and as a diffusion source for local magnetic hardening. This helps overcome a key limitation of conventional grain boundary diffusion, which is generally restricted to thin magnets, and opens a route towards thicker high-performance magnets with reduced heavy rare earth content.
The study also explored hybrid segmented magnets incorporating Ce-substituted material, showing how more abundant light rare earth elements can be used strategically while preserving magnetic performance. This contribution is directly relevant to MAGELLAN’s work on sustainable permanent magnet technologies, critical raw material efficiency, rare earth substitution and performance retention in NdFeB-based magnets.
TU Darmstadt’s wider involvement at INTERMAG 2026 further reinforced the relevance of the event to MAGELLAN’s scientific scope. In addition to chairing the “NdFeB Based Hard Magnetic Materials” session, TU Darmstadt researchers contributed to related presentations on Ce substitution via the 2-powder method, the use of the 2-powder method to enable larger NdFeB magnets with reduced heavy rare earth content, anisotropy-field determination in permanent magnets, DyCo5 magnetism, interaction domains in NdFeB, Fe-N thin films, recycled NdFeB powder classification and broader hard magnetic materials research.
These outputs are closely connected to the project’s objectives by advancing the understanding, characterisation and sustainable design of permanent magnets, including approaches for rare earth reduction, substitution, recycling-oriented processing and long-term performance retention.
