What should be the test load for a Permanent Magnetic Lifter?  Some manufacturers differ with ASME….  In November, 2005, I wrote to the B30 Committee at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).  I had just completed my design for a new permanent magnetic lifter and wanted to make sure that in every respect, it met the standards as laid out in ASME’s B30.20 “Close Proximity Operated Magnets”. 

It is one thing to know about a product. It is another to understand how it will behave under varying conditions in the field.  The vast majority of the manufacturing and steel service industries have never incorporated permanent magnetic workholding and material handling technology into their production process; it is their right to be skeptical. 

Why has the manufacturing industry failed to fully embrace the latest technologies associated with workholding?  I often find myself looking back to the days when, as a “wannabe” toolmaker, I had my butt (frequently) kicked because I failed to allow for the machine backlash or I overestimated the speeds and feeds for the HSS tooling of the time. Trying to clamp the workpiece without distorting it was an art-form and quite tricky to master.