How are lifting magnets made? By finding out needs, designing, calculating and simulating, just about so, in a nutshell. In addition, all the experience that has accumulated in the organization over four decades is needed to get a good outcome. Not all lifting equipment manufacturers are able to do this. Read more about how to design and manufacture magnets at Skanveir on our blog.
The design of the magnet begin from the customers need. When it comes to transfer of big size of steel plates, typically customers approach us with their needs by asking; “Our purpose is to streamline our in-house material flows and make it safer at same time. We move pieces that weigh x tons and have external dimensions of NxNxN. Can you find equipment for this purpose?”
In addition to this, the design of the magnet requires information about the environment, knowledge of temperatures, outdoor/indoor use, materials and temperatures of the moving parts, etc. We almost always visit the customers site to find out the conditions. It is easy for the customer to ignore things that are obvious for them but crucial for us to measure. Additionally, when dealing with the customer face to face, other necessary information about the customer’s process may become available.
After mapping the customer’s needs, we will find out whether there is a ready-made existing solution to the need in our large magnetic library. If not, then the design process for the new magnet is started.
The starting point for the design is the physical dimensions of the lifted piece, to which the magnet must be suitable both in terms of surface area and in terms of the thickness of the sheet. From this it is possible to design a coil, which determines the electric power and other variables of the magnet. In principle, the design of a coil requires the coordination of several variables, which rarely succeeds at once, but often requires several calculations to find reasonable outcome.
Once the physical dimensions and coil of the magnet are designed, the force of the magnet is computer-modeled. Modeling a magnet requires an extremely powerful computation capability from a computer, and yet a single computation can easily take several hours, even a workday. Based on the results, the dimensions are optimized so that the required power is achieved with reasonable physical dimensions. Getting the final result often requires 5 to 10 modelings.
Once the main variables of the magnet have been designed, a final design is made for the magnet, where the values obtained are documented and manufacturing documents are made, where all the variables are defined.
After design, the magnet goes into manufacturing. Each part is manufactured in our own manufacturing facilities by experienced professionals in accordance with high quality standards. The essential part of the work flow is to cast the coil into the frame. This is important part to the life cycle of the magnet. The magnets are finished by machining the gripping surfaces to be very smooth, which after the magnets are painted.
As a final and almost most important part of all the manufactured magnets are testing. The minimum requirement is double release force for the desired capacity with an air gap of one millimeter. Typically, the capacity obtained is up to three times that requested.
Based on the quantities of magnets, electrical power, current and voltage, etc., a control cabinet for the magnets is designed. But this is another blog topic in future, stay tuned.