Can Magnets Be Reoriented to Confine Their Field?

[Cbowen546]

Hey everyone,

I am wondering if there is a way to orient magnets so that the field is contained.

Little background, i am trying to develop a device that can lift small Fe particles. I determined that a rare Earth magnet will do the trick but i need it to be switchable and small/lightweight. So i tried to build an electromagnet powered by 1 or 2 D-Cell batteries but can't seem to come up with anything strong enough.

I found these MagSwitch devices that are small, lightweight and are easy to operate (turn of a switch) and use NO POWER. This is interesting but i can't figure out how they do it. To use a few magnets and arrange them so that there is no field doesn't make sense to me...

Also found this link: http://www.thyssenkrupp-magnettechnik.com/pdf/stacking.pdf

But am having a hard time working out the orientation of the "coil" in each diagram. Is the coil just one large coil wrapped around the center lug in types 1, 2 and 2b? Or is it two small coils oriented with poles vertically or horizontally?

ANY help is much appreciated!

Thank you
Chris

 

[Drakkith]

Interesting, I'll have to look into this some more.