Volume 5

Permanent magnets play an increasingly important role in modern society because they are vital components of numerous domestic and industrial devices. The last few decades have witnessed a quite extraordinary development in the use of hard magnetic materials, especially after the advent of rare earth permanent magnets. The rare earth permanent magnets are unequalled because they combine a high magnetization with an extraordinary magnetic hardness which allows the use of such magnets having the extreme shapes and small dimensions as required in modern devices.