The Pulsed-Field Magnetometer (PFM) is internationally recognised for the complete characterisation of modern high performance magnetic materials. It is a method for generating a hysteresis loop (like that of a permeameter) but PFMs have no upper coercivity measurement limitations.

PFMs have gained in popularity over last few decades as a measurement technique as they are easily scalable in sample size from 1 mm to several tens of mm. The actual measurement time is less than 1 second, which opens the possibility of high speed testing and even 100% testing for quality control.

Magnet makers have long used PFMs in production for testing of finished sintered blocks before committing to the expense of cutting and coating magnets. They have adopted various test strategies from corner samples, to slices, to testing of full blocks. The talk reviews the pros and cons of these options with modern PFMs with additional advanced diagnostics.

PFMs can easily, quickly and repeatably characterise the high coercivity magnet samples used in today’s high performance motor applications such as electric vehicles (EV). Many users of PFMs are developing and verifying grain boundary diffusion (GBD) processes on 1mm samples and slices. Another growing application is that of testing arc segments, loaf samples and parts for high performance motors as PFMs can directly measure samples of any shape. This presentation will review how this technique can used for automated lab testing and ultimately for fully automated high speed quality control.