In recent years, a reduction in size and weight, an increase in power and an increase in efficiency have been required for permanent magnetic motors used in hybrid cars, hard disk drives or the like. In particular, with recent requirement for a reduction in size of the hard disk drives, a further reduction in size and thickness has been required for voice coil motors (hereinafter referred to as VCMs) used for head driving of the hard disk drives as shown in patent document 1 (JP-A-2006-286819).
Then, in realizing the reduction in size and thickness in the above-mentioned VCMs, a reduction in film thickness and further improvement in magnetic characteristics have been required for permanent magnets buried in the VCMs. Incidentally, as the permanent magnets, there are ferrite magnets, Sm—Co-based magnets, Nd—Fe—B-based magnets, Sm2Fe17Nx-based magnets and the like. In particular, Nd—Fe—B-based magnets having high coercive force are used as the permanent magnets for the permanent magnet motors.
Here, as a method for manufacturing the permanent magnet used in the permanent magnet motor, a powder sintering method is generally used. In the powder sintering method as used herein, a raw material is first pulverized with a jet mill (dry pulverization) to produce a magnet powder as shown in FIG. 5. Thereafter, the magnet powder is placed in a mold, and press molded to a desired shape while applying a magnetic field from the outside. Then, the solid magnet powder molded to the desired shape is sintered at a predetermined temperature (for example, 1100° C. in the case of the Nd—Fe—B-based magnet), thereby manufacturing the permanent magnet.
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