FAQ

Beyond catalog items, CMR offers Polymagnet design software (PMCAD) and magnetizer units for both lab and full production use.

We also provide a full set of professional services: design, ideation, rapid prototyping, personalized training, testing and verification, and production sourcing. See Custom Solutions for the full offerings list.

Pricing depends on the complexity of the behavior, or combination of behaviors, being engineered into the pattern. For most applications the lifetime cost of a Polymagnet is lower than traditional fixturing.

Just as important: a Polymagnet pattern can be prototyped in minutes and changed on the fly during production — without the cost and lead time of building new fixture tooling.

Two principles of magnetics explain it. First, magnets always form a circuit from north to south pole — flux leaves one pole and seeks the opposite. Second, flux always seeks the lowest-energy path from north to south.

By printing patterns of north and south poles onto the surface of a magnet, CMR controls the shape of that circuit and the path the flux takes. The result is a library of patterns that focus magnetic energy for greater holding force, or redirect it entirely to create alignment, spring or latch behaviors that don't exist in a plain bar magnet.

Polymagnets are engineered magnets. A common magnet's strength is fixed by its size and shape alone. For custom applications, CMR engineers instead design a specific pole pattern and apply it to a magnet that's separately tuned for strength and behavior — decoupling "how strong" from "how it behaves."

Yes — Polymagnets focus the energy already present in the magnet rather than adding energy. A normal magnet-to-metal connection wastes a large share of its magnetic energy to stray flux leakage. By focusing that energy into the target metal, Polymagnets hold with significantly more strength for the same size magnet.

It depends where you are on your magnet journey. Looking for a specific off-the-shelf part? Start with the catalog. Need something engineered around your product? We ideate and co-create custom solutions with you. We also license design software and sell magnetizer units for both lab prototyping and production runs.

CMR publishes typical performance characteristics for the various grades of both its sintered NdFeB (neodymium) and sintered SmCo (samarium cobalt) magnetic material. Ask your account contact for the current data sheets for the grade you're evaluating.

All catalog magnets ship with a standard NiCuNi (nickel-copper-nickel) coating, though other coatings — including PTFE/Teflon™ — are available for high-volume applications.

SmCo is normally left uncoated, but most of the coatings used for NdFeB can also be applied to SmCo on request.

Yes. Polymagnets can be made with flexible NdFeB (neodymium), which is significantly stronger than a standard ferrite refrigerator magnet. Typical performance characteristics for the various grades of CMR's flexible NdFeB material are available on request.

The right mount depends on the material it's mounted to and any aesthetic requirements. In general, a screw or countersink is the best method, followed by bonding the magnet directly to steel. Bonding a high-force Polymagnet directly to plastic is not recommended.

Distance matters a great deal, because a Polymagnet's field is concentrated close to its surface. As a rule of thumb we recommend a gap under 2mm between the Polymagnet and its target — though the exact tolerance depends on magnet geometry, pattern design and the application. Force falls off quickly with distance, so this is one of the first things to nail down in a design review.

RoHS. Typical neodymium magnets supplied by CMR through its authorized suppliers are RoHS and RoHS II compliant, and do not exceed designated limits for Cadmium, Hexavalent Chromium, Mercury, Lead, Polybrominated Biphenyls or Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers. They also don't contain Deca-BDE (per EC Decision 2005/717/EC) or intentional PFOS additives (per Directive 2006/122/EC), and require no RoHS2 exemptions.

REACH. Typical neodymium magnets supplied by CMR do not contain Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) as listed by the European Chemicals Agency under EC Regulation No. 1907/2006.

If a customer specifies a non-standard coating (anything other than nickel-copper-nickel), CMR makes no compliance statement for that coating up front, but will evaluate RoHS and REACH status case by case.

In a static magnetic system — two permanent NIB magnets facing north-to-north or south-to-south, for example — it's physically impossible to hold that configuration without something preventing the magnets from sliding past each other or flipping over. That's Earnshaw's theorem. Add a lightweight mechanical constraint against lateral movement and the magnets appear to hover, which CMR calls a spring function.

A true bearing system is possible as long as part of the assembly is mechanically held apart to satisfy that constraint.

Same physics as above — Earnshaw's theorem means a static magnetic configuration can't hold itself apart without some mechanical constraint against lateral movement. Provide a lightweight constraint on two axes and the pair will appear to hover; CMR calls this a spring. Both axes have to be constrained for the spring function (and several other Polymagnet functions) to work correctly.

CMR does not accept custom design requests for pure levitation/hover projects.

No. Friction is still present from the mechanical constraint required on two axes, per the levitation answer above. CMR does not accept custom design requests for frictionless-motion or free-energy projects.

All Polymagnet data comes from in-house force testing in CMR's own magnet characterization lab, with comparisons drawn between directly comparable magnets of the same size and grade under consistent conditions. During testing, magnets are held parallel and aligned — unconstrained real-world use, where magnets tilt away from target during engagement and disengagement, will typically produce lower forces.

By contrast, most magnet pull-force data published online comes from idealized "Case 1" or "Case 2" configurations that overstate real product forces by 2x or more. Case 1 is the maximum pull force between a magnet and an infinitely thick piece of steel; Case 2 is the maximum pull force from a magnet sandwiched between two infinitely thick steel plates against another infinitely thick plate. Both are useful as theoretical ceilings, but neither reflects what a product designer will actually get — always confirm the source of any magnet spec before you design around it.

CMR has engineered magnets down to 4mm in diameter. That number alone doesn't capture the complexity, though — small magnets carry far less energy than large ones because available energy scales with volume, and other small-scale physics further reduce usable energy unless the magnet sits nearly in contact with what it's attaching to.

CMR holds more than 100 issued U.S. patents, with many more pending, spanning a range of magnet and magnetization technologies — including the processes and equipment used to manufacture Polymagnets, and the unique behaviors themselves (the ones found throughout the catalog).

Those behavior patents typically apply regardless of whether a given behavior is achieved via Polymagnets, conventionally magnetized magnets, or an assembly of discrete magnets. CMR also holds issued or pending patents in most of the major consumer and producer markets worldwide.

The world's strongest magnets are made from Neodymium-Iron-Boron (NIB or NdFeB) plus small amounts of other elements. They're called "permanent" magnets because they retain a very strong field after being energized and are very hard to demagnetize — an NIB magnet naturally loses strength (degausses) at roughly 1% per 100 years.

There are only two ways to fully demagnetize NIB: sustained high heat (130°F–200°F for about 45 minutes, depending on grade), or exposure to a reverse magnetic field on the order of 5x the strength of the magnet itself. Polymagnets behave exactly the same way, retaining their strength unless exposed to one of those two conditions.