Cylindrical magnets are long, circular and very strong magnets where the diameter is exceeded by the length, and which are often made use of for the purposes of recessing into drilled holes to hold applications in circumstances requiring bigger magnetic fields.
Cylindrical magnets come with superior temperature stability and magnetic strength that makes them perfectly suited to a variety of commercial, consumer and technical applications. Cylindrical magnets can be found in alnico and neodymium and are available in a large array of different finishes, grades and sizes.
What are the applications?
There are a number of different applications for these strong magnets.
Audio equipment
These strong magnets are also used in audio equipment such as the likes of acoustic pickups, headphones, loudspeakers and microphones. In speakers permanent magnets are used along with a coil that carries current and has electricity converted into mechanical energy that is able to move the speaker cone. This then changes air pressure and creates sound.
The reverse is true with microphones, which see a diaphragm connected to a wire coil inside a permanent magnet, and the coil moves after the diaphragm has been moved by sound. When the coil moves within the magnetic field caused by the strong magnet the result is the production of an electrical signal mirroring the original sound.
Dentures
Small cylindrical magnets can be made use of in the case of attachments within corrective devices or to hold replacement dentures together in instances where a number of teeth are absent. Even small magnets of this type can be effective due to their sheer strength, and they also come with increased corrosion resistance when coated.
Generators and motors
A mixture of a permanent magnet and an electromagnet are relied on by electric motors, the former normally being a neodymium cylindrical magnet that converts the electrical energy into the form of mechanical energy. A generator is the reverse of this, converting mechanical energy into electrical energy with the use of a conductor that moves through a magnetic field.
Hard disk drives
Hard disk drives record information via the magnetisation and demagnetisation of a thin film of ferromagnetic material that is on the disk. The disk is separated into different sectors and tracks and every sector has a number of small individual magnetic cells that the drive’s read/write head is used to magnetise when the data is being written onto the drive.
These hard drive heads are manufactured with ferrite that is wrapped in fine wire coil. The coil is energised during writing, forming a strong magnetic field and magnetising the recording surface next to the gap.
Strong magnets are also utilised within the actuator that is responsible for moving the read/write head into the correct position.
These strong magnets surround us in many places in everyday life where we may not realise it, including in the likes of shops and restaurants. Other examples of uses for these magnets include the recovery of heavy ferrous items and to hang pictures both in the home and in professional art galleries.