As you navigate your scrap yard or demolition site, maneuvering your magnet to hoist and harvest scrap, you come to find out the hard way that your magnet doesn’t seem to be up to the task. It comes as a shock—after all, you knew going in that the advertising lifting strength of this magnet should account for every piece of scrap you encounter. So what gives? It could be that some problems with storage have weakened this piece of equipment. It may also be that its configuration isn’t right for your job after all. Let’s explore some reasons your magnet’s lifting strength seems low—or at least lower than you need it to be.
Insufficient Diameter
Many lifting magnets punch above their weight, so to speak—the magnet’s coverage area at first seems incommensurate with its lifting capacity. Still, there are limits even to the most overachieving magnets. If you find that you’re coming into big-ticket scrap steel at your yard but struggling to hoist it with your magnet, it may be time to move up to a larger model.
Non-Ideal Shape
“Right size, wrong shape,” you mutter to yourself as what looks like a towering home run high into the upper deck curves just askew of the pole in deep left, landing foul. In magnets, as in baseball, the right-size-wrong-shape dilemma has bedeviled many a magnet operator. Sometimes sheer coverage area isn’t enough to maximize the strength of a magnet. The reason so many magnets are U-shaped is that proximity between poles increases its lifting strength. A magnet that puts its poles together may be better suited to your job.
Poor Storage Habits
Retirees love the heat and humidity of South Florida. Magnets, on the other hand, are still very much in active service, and they abhor both qualities. High temperatures destabilize magnets by exciting atoms and disturbing their magnetic fields. High heat over a long period will gradually weaken a magnet—in some cases, high enough temperatures over enough time can demagnetize it altogether, leaving you with an inert chunk of metal. The amount of moisture in the air can be one of the reasons your magnet’s lifting strength seems low as well. Storing magnets in a humid place causes corrosion, transforming naturally magnetic iron to non-magnetic ferric oxide—better known as rust—and diminishing how much of your magnet’s surface area can go to work. Keep magnets in a cool and dry place when you’re not using them. This both prolongs their lifespan and ensures that they’re as strong as advertised.
