Production of anisotropic hot deformed Nd-Fe-B magnets with the addition of Pr-Cu-Al alloy based on nanocomposite ribbon

•A short-range grain boundary diffusion process is proposed to improve the uniformity of coercivity.•The disappearance of α-Fe phase and the formation of intergranular phases contribute to huge improvement of coercivity.•Anisotropic hot deformed Nd-Fe-B magnets with high performance were fabricated.•The metallurgical behavior of elements and intergranular phase evolution are investigated.