An Ingenious Way to Turn Neodymium Permanent Magnets On and Off - Magswitch. . .

[rukiddingme]

We've tried it ourselves, and these powerful magnets won't even pick up a single paperclip in the OFF position.

http://www.kjmagnetics.com/blog.asp?p=magswitch&utm_source=K%26J+Magnetics+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a0e7a44399-2015_05_May_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73e0031e12-a0e7a44399-244051313

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPwoFnQnBPk

Company URL:

http://magswitch.com.au/

[NTesla]

An obvious question (at least to me) is, how much force does it require to turn the knob from 'on' to 'off'? I would assume it exceeds the force of the magnets in the 'on' state, when combined with losses used to produce useful output energy e.g. a generator, i.e. it might not be viable as a magnet motor...

However...thinking about how one might use this to produce rotation..you could try using them as stators and the rotor 'heads' would be metal blocks.

[synchro1]

An obvious question (at least to me) is, how much force does it require to turn the knob from 'on' to 'off'? I would assume it exceeds the force of the magnets in the 'on' state, when combined with losses used to produce useful output energy e.g. a generator, i.e. it won't be viable as a magnet motor...

@NTesla,

              That's a pretty big assumption on your part Bub! He'd need a hydraulic jack to pry that magnet off without the switch.

[NTesla]

@NTesla,

              That's a pretty big assumption on your part Bub! He'd need a hydraulic jack to pry that magnet off without the switch.

To pry them apart without the outer rings for sure...looking at it further given the size of the knobs (i.e. they are not strong levers) means that the force required is probably quite small! So my assumption may indeed be incorrect. How much force is required is the question...

I have some diametrically magnetized magnets I could try this out with. I don't have access to a lathe to machine the outer rings however perhaps thin sheet steel wrapped around (like transformer laminates) might do the trick - plus you can build up each layer until you reach the desired effect.

Here is a demo video of one of the companies products:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N13HkxyRsZc

...And a review video demonstrating turning of the knobs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VLRlKr3G1U

[synchro1]

@NTesla,

The guy looks like he's applying around five pounds of force to levering the switch in that video. That would accelerate an iron rotor with four hundred pounds of force if switched off at TDC. That's an eighty to one gain! I would just buy one of those switches for the hundred bucks from K&J Magnetics to experiment with.