The Various Forms of Disc Magnets and Their Applications

The Various Forms of Disc Magnets and Their Applications

Disc magnets, put simply, are an incredibly strong magnet produced through a process involving making alloys from natural elements. Usually, the elements used are rare earth metals (or 'rare earth elements'), in most cases, neodymium. Rare earth metals are termed as such because they are components of a class of the periodic table of the elements classified as 'rare'.However, these 'rare' earth metals are actually quite easy to come across, as they are considered to be a byproduct of mining for minerals. Other types of disc magnets include ceramic magnets, made by creating a mix of iron, ceramic and alnico (a combination of nickel, cobalt, copper, aluminium, iron and occasionally titanium). However, as ceramic magnets are weaker in terms of magnetism than rare earth magnets, ceramic magnets are not used as frequently by manufacturers commercially.

The most powerful disc magnet is, by far, the neodymium magnet. Although the neodymium magnet is just one millimeter in diameter, this type of magnet contains enough force such that it can erase an entire hard disk drive. However, neodymium magnets are rather brittle - should two neodymium magnets clash together, they will shatter, sending out shards with enough force to cause injury. In addition, neodymium magnets can break a finger should a person holding two magnets lose their grip on one of them. Neodymium magnets, which were first manufactured by well-known corporation General Motors, are created by combining neodymium with iron and boron. Another type of disc magnet, known as the 'SmCo' magnet, is made by combining samarium and cobalt, although this is much more expensive than typical neodymium magnets.

In recent years, the use of disc magnets in the commercial world has increased. Neodymium disc-shaped magnets have been phased in to replace magnet types such as alnico and ferrite magnets, as neodymium magnets are small yet very powerful. For example, the growing trend for manufacturers to make much more powerful computer speakers and hard drives has led to the increased uptake of neodymium magnets, as the manufacturers require very small magnets to fit inside small electronic parts. For example, in many hard drives, the thin plate opposite the read-write disks contains a small neodymium magnet. In addition, another neodymium disc magnet lies below the plate inside an actuator. Although the majority of the newer hard drives on the market contain two magnets, a minority contain just one, rendering them less powerful than their dual-magnet counterparts. The power of neodymium magnets when compared with alnico magnets may be demonstrated in this context - an alnico magnet ten times the equivalent size of a neodymium magnet must be used to achieve the same force inside the hard drive. This goes to show that neodymium magnets are much stronger than their alnico equivalents!

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