A question about permanent magnets !.

[Paul-R]

This is a most interesting debate. If it were feasable to magnetise
and de-magnetise "on the fly", and even re-magnetise N-S to S-N
"on the fly", then a whole range of new magnet motors
might become possible. I think we need to try to find a
manufacturer of Neos, and they tend to be Chinese. But they will
probably shame us by speaking fluent English.

These people seem to be suggesting magnetising by discharging a
capacitor:
http://www.walkerldjscientific.com/Products/Product_Lines/Magnetizing_Stations/Magnetizers/magnetizers.html
A job for Monday morning.
Paul.

[JamesThomas]

Perhaps many people think that a magnet is like a battery which stores energy given it by the manufacturing process which would use more energy initially than returned. It is my understanding that this is not at all the case. It is more like the manufacturing process aligns the atomical structure within the material allowing for the new magnet to be a magnetic-engine unto itself. We get back way more than we put in as the magnetic force is intrinsic within the atoms themselves....they just need to be lined up in such a way as to allow them to flow.

j

[z_p_e]

I believe the very same thing J.

As entropy would have it though, all those little magnets and domains will eventually go back to their random alignment.

It's just a matter of time, and dependant on the external conditions the magnet experiences over its lifetime. In some cases, many of us will die before our neos do.

Darren

[IronHead]

There have been many cases of magnetic run down . So even if the magnet were to last say only a few months a simple charging coil can be built into an apparatus recharging (Block wall alignment ) the magnet in a few seconds with  a small amount of energy stored from its  prior output would solve this problem .
So again even in the case of "run down" these magnets will out last the user .