Magnets Bring Family Together

Your home is your sanctuary – a refuge to reconnect with family and friends. At the end of the day, no other place has a stronger attractive power or charm. Here, loved ones come together. Whether gathering with others for a meal or activity, or relaxing alone in a shared space, your home is where it happens. 

The allure of a permanent haven, free from the distractions of the world outside, has a deep-rooted resonance.  Your home is deeply integral to having a sense of place, and magnets are integral to virtually every space within your home. You don’t always see them, but magnets all around us. They're in your phone, your car, your TV, and your electronics. You are even standing (or perhaps sitting) on a giant magnet right now, since the Earth’s core generates a magnetic field. In your home, your favorite electronics use magnets, from television sets and computer monitors to microphones and laptops.  Furniture, children's toys and hanging art can also use magnets. Magnets are even found in everything from shoes to mattress pads to aid with pain relief.

Outside of the home, magnets can be found when you travel and when you play. Magnets are found in various places in your car. Magnets can launch and stop roller coasters and at the amusement park.  Magnets can help keep doors closed and locked at home and on the go.

Magnets in the Kitchen

While magnets have great utility across a wide range of applications, their usefulness in the home is easily overlooked. This is especially true in the kitchen. Your kitchen is the heart of your home.  While the household kitchen was designed primarily for preparing and cooking meals, it has - particularly over the past few decades - evolved into the epicenter of the home.

Used by the entire family, your kitchen sets the tone for the entire house. People invest a great deal into kitchen upgrades because it is the most important room when it comes to the resale value of the home. A modern kitchen may have  magnetic strips to hold kitchen knives securely and magnetic catches on cupboard doors. Some kitchens even have neodymium disc magnets hidden in wooden doors to create invisible closures. Integrated hidden appliances can use magnets to affix a wooden door facade to a metal front. A magnetic spice rack with neodymium magnets can be useful for clearing valuable counter space and is easy to make as a DIY project. 

Kitchens may also feature magnetic hooks for utensils to keep them close at hand and free up counter space.

 Since electric motors use magnetic fields and electricity and to generate force, nearly any appliance that creates motion with electricity, incorporates magnets.

 Electric appliances used in the home are typically powered by compact direct current (DC) motors. These motors require small NdFeB magnets to operate.  Electric devices, from blenders, lamps and telephones to larger appliances such as dishwashers, refrigerators and washing machines, all use electromagnets to help them function. The permanent magnets in the motors enable the rotors to run synchronously to the alternating (AC) current. A common countertop appliance such as a blender or mixer may contain an electromagnet with a permanent magnet surrounding it. When activated, electricity flows to the electromagnet. It then reacts with the surrounding permanent magnet, generating motion to spin the blades, or activate another moving component. The latches used to keep refrigerator doors closed are controlled by magnets. Refrigerators and freezers are sealed with magnetic mechanisms to ensure that they can be easily opened from the inside. Microwave ovens have changed the way we cook. A magnetron is a vacuum tube containing electrons that circulate inside. A magnet is placed around the tube to provide the magnetic force that causes the electrons to move in a loop. The magnetrons inside of the ovens consist of magnets to generate electromagnetic waves that heat meals by generating intermolecular friction between the molecules of the food.

Magnetic Products can Simplify Everyday Living

Rare earth permanent magnets embody a mature technology, and scientists and engineers use magnets like these to design and develop innovative magnetic products that simplify everyday living. These products can be found throughout the home and are not simply limited to the kitchen. Magnets can also be found in shower curtain weights, children’s toys, phones, washing machines doorbells, and CRT monitors and television sets. To prevent corrosion inside your water heater, a magnet is positioned at the intake pipe to catch damaging metallic calcium particles before they can get inside. The speakers in your audio systems and telephones create sound by converting electricals signal into audio waves. Each speaker contains a wire coil inside a semi-rigid membrane, which vibrates back and forth as it is attracted to and repelled from a permanent stationary magnet. Data on your computer is stored by magnetism. The storage disks inside computers are coated with magnetic material. When the magnetic orientation of the iron is altered, the designated data is stored within the patterns and can be read by the computer. Applications involving the use of magnets continue to evolve. Scientists are constantly researching new ideas in magnetics and materials that can help us all live better, simpler, cleaner lives. They’re finding ways to use magnets for sustainable energy, pollution-free refrigeration, and new applications in computing and electronics.

Magnets Help Make Life Better

From the discovery of the first magnetic lodestone over 4000 years ago, to the applications of magnets in everything from science and industry to recreation and everyday living, magnets have enhanced virtually all aspects of modern life. For more than forty years, neodymium magnets have been used in a wide variety of applications that require powerful, compact, affordable permanent magnets. In magnetic toys, jewelry clasps, mounting fixtures, and modern sporting equipment, these rare earth magnets have improved modern life by enhancing convenience and efficiency, function and form. Large or small, visible or hidden, fixed or mobile: Magnets help make life better.