PURPOSE: To obtain a boron-free hard magnetic material on the basis of iron, neodymium and carbon having high crystal anisotropy by melt spinning an alloy of a specific compsn. consisting of the neodymium, the iron and the carbon by a specific method, then annealing the melt.

CONSTITUTION: This material is the boron-free hard magnetic material on the bases of the neodymium, iron and carbon having a hard magnetic tetragonal phase. The material has the entire compsn. consisting of 11.1 to 15.2 atm.% neodymium, 74.8 to 84.8 atm.% iron and 4 to 10 atm.% carbon. The finely crystalline tetragonal phase of an Nd2Fe14C structure having a grain size of ≤0.2 μm exists in the material. The hard magnetic material is obtd. by the following method; i.e., the alloy of the neodymium, the iron and the carbon having the compsn. described above and is melted. This melt is sprayed onto a rapidly moving low-temp. surface to obtain ribbon or flakes having a thickness of ≤30 μm. These flakes are then annealed at 675 to 750°C.