Magnetic end-of-arm tooling is quietly displacing vacuum in steel-handling cells: no compressor, no cups to wear out, and — with permanent or electropermanent magnets — a grip that fails safe on power loss.
Automation buys outcomes: cycle time, energy, failure modes. Magnetic tooling wins on all three where the workpiece is ferrous, and the switchable/electropermanent generation (“programmable in time”) is already standard kit. Correlation-coded magnetization (“programmable in space”) adds self-alignment and identity on top — the parts of the problem grippers still solve with cameras and fixtures.
OnRobot’s MG10 collaborative-robot gripper holds ferrous parts magnetically and keeps holding through a power loss — the safety property vacuum can’t offer. Configurable grip strength, no air supply.
Magswitch’s switchable permanent-magnet tooling — on/off with a rotation, no continuous power — anchors welding fixtures and EOAT; the company cites up to 90% reduction in compressed-air use versus vacuum in converted cells [vendor figure].
Electropermanent chucks and tool-changers hold with zero standby power and swap tooling on an electrical pulse — shipping across machine-tool and robotics catalogs.
Coded pairs that pull a part into registration in the last millimetres — cheap passive error correction under a camera-guided place. Industrial Magnetics’ SmartMag and Polymagnet keyed/align pairs are purchasable; a documented factory deployment is not public, so this stays illustrative.
Why coded · Align + key together: the fixture accepts only the right part, and centers it.
MIT’s M-Blocks — cubes that flip, roll and self-assemble using internal flywheels and edge magnets — preview the modular-robotics endgame: structure decided by magnet pattern. Research, not product.
Why coded · The academic soft-robotics frontier goes further: programmable magnetization printed into elastomer microrobots (MIT, Nature 2018; Nature Comms 2024–25).
Automation buys cycle time, energy and failure modes. Magnetic end-of-arm tooling wins on all three when the workpiece is ferrous — and coding adds self-alignment and identity on top. Evaluate against these.
Permanent and electropermanent grippers (e.g. OnRobot MG10) keep holding through a power loss — the safety property vacuum cannot offer. Confirm holding force on your thinnest workpiece and the intended release method.
Switchable magnets clamp with zero standby draw; Magswitch cites up to a 90% cut in compressed-air use versus vacuum in converted cells (vendor figure). Model it against your duty cycle.
Coded align/key pairs pull a part into registration in the last millimetres — cheap passive error correction under a camera-guided place.
Request mating-cycle and holding-repeatability data, and note CMR is the single source for correlation-coded parts.
Permanent and electropermanent types do — that is their headline safety feature. Pure electromagnets drop the part on power loss.
No — magnetic tooling needs a ferrous (steel/iron) workpiece. Aluminium and plastics need vacuum or mechanical grippers.
Self-alignment into registration and part identity (the fixture accepts only the right part) — not simply more pull.
More in the full FAQ and spec reference.
We are an independent guide — we do not sell magnets. Tell us the robotics or automation problem you are solving and we will point you to the exact Polymagnet part or CMR's engineering team, and send the behavior datasheet you need. No spam; your note reaches a human.
The catalogue is sorted by what the magnet has to do — hold, align, latch, turn, resist a sideways pull — because that is what you know when you start looking. If nothing there fits, describe the job and we will tell you honestly whether it can be done.
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