The heavy, durable and solid magnets that are used commonly can be easily reshaped due to their malleable and ductile properties. This means that the heavy magnets can either be beaten into thin sheets or drawn into wires of desired dimensions. Such sheets or wires of the magnet are called flexible magnets. These are usually bendable and are lightweight.
What Are They Made Up Of? Flexible magnets are composed of ferrite powder and rubber polymer resin. They are of two types and are manufactured through different processes.
1)Extruded magnetic profiles and tapes – The heavy magnets are heated above their melting temperatures and are forced under high pressure to take the desired shape with the help of electrical discharge-machining (EDM).
2)Flexible magnetic sheet – The heavy magnets are heated and beaten into thin sheets with the help of the calendaring process. One of the sides is magnetized and the other side is laminated to serve useful purposes.
Applications
1)Domestic Applications – The flexible magnets can be used for a plenty of domestic applications such as shower doors and refrigerator closures, as well as window and door seals, cabinet closures, calendars, arts and crafts for interior decorations, clocks, watches, kids’ toys and puzzles, gaskets et cetera.
2)Industrial Applications -Many industrial applications such as photocopier scraping blades find flexible magnets as resourceful components in their construction. They are used in surface masking during painting applications. They can be used for packaging as well as secondary glazing for bug screens. They could even be used for labeling important projects that the industry undertakes and also as labels to locate stocks in their warehouses.
3)Other industrial applications include – drive by wire-steering systems, latches and fasteners, ABS braking systems for automotives, rotors for brushless DC motors, stepper motors, sensors, reprographic rolls, and timers.
4)Promotional Applications -The heavy magnets, when beaten into sheets of desired dimensions, can be laminated using vinyl which makes their natural brown color glossy. The laminated side can then be used for many creative purposes by printing designs or text using screen printing techniques.
5)Display advertising – The magnets can be used at exhibitions or events to promote particular brands and can be easily set up and quickly removed once the event concludes.
6)Creative advertising – Due to their flexibility and luster, they are used in making creative business cards and bookmarks for promotions. They are hassle-free and serve as unique forms of promoting their merchandise.
7)Advertising for cars – The thin magnetic strips can be cut out into logos for taxis and inserted on their bonnets for advertising purposes. These can be easily removed when the cars are used privately.
8)Menu boards – The thin magnetic sheets could be used for advertisements such as menu boards and novelties, and direct mails such as pizza or coupon mailers.
9)Retail promotions – Many shops and high-end stores use magnetic signs for promoting their brands. They even customize on their point of purchase displays.
Other applications – The strip magnets are used to display schedules for sports, trains and flights etcetera. They are used as trade show booths as well.
