Magnet Handling & Safety Guide

Ranked by how often they actually hurt people and equipment in industrial settings:

• 1 — Pinch and crush injuries. Two magnets, or a magnet and a steel surface, snapping together with fingers between them. By far the most common incident, ranging from blood blisters (small magnets) to fractures requiring surgery (large ones). The forces arrive suddenly and accelerate — the last centimeter happens faster than a reflex.
• 2 — Flying fragments. Sintered NdFeB is brittle. Magnets that slam together can chip or shatter, ejecting sharp fragments at eye-injury speed. Safety glasses whenever handling magnets that can reach each other is the rule.
• 3 — Medical device interference. Strong static fields can affect pacemakers, ICDs, and other implants at close range — a genuine, managed workplace hazard (section 03).
• 4 — Struck-by and dropped-part injuries. Large magnets leaping to steel tables, tools flying to large magnets, assemblies shifting during handling.
• 5 — Property damage. Erased magnetic media, disturbed instruments, demagnetized tools and watches, and damaged product from magnets attracting mid-air.

Practical handling rules scale with size. As working guidance for typical NdFeB:

Grade matters as much as dimensions — an N52 part behaves like a size class above an N35 of the same geometry. When in doubt, handle up a class.

Pacemakers and implanted cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) contain magnetically operated switches: a sufficiently strong field close to the device can put it into a safe/test mode or suspend therapy. Device manufacturers commonly advise keeping strong magnets a safe distance from the implant — with ~15 cm (6 inches) a widely cited minimum for consumer-strength magnets and considerably more distance appropriate for large industrial parts.

• Identify affected personnel confidentially through your EH&S process, and keep them out of strong-field work areas or provide adapted duties.
• Post the areas. "Strong magnetic fields — pacemaker wearers keep out" signage at magnet stores, magnetizing stations, and assembly cells is standard practice.
• Visitors count. Include the warning in visitor briefings for production tours.
• Other implants — hearing implants, some infusion pumps, neurostimulators — have their own field sensitivities; individuals should follow their device manufacturer's guidance.

Separating magnets

• Slide, never pull. Shear force to slide one magnet off a stack is a fraction of the direct pull force. Slide the top magnet sideways past the edge, then immediately move it well away before repositioning your grip.
• Use the edge of a table (non-magnetic) as a fulcrum for stubborn pairs: overhang one magnet, hold the stack down, push the overhanging part sideways and down.
• Wedges and separator jigs — plastic or aluminum wedges, or a purpose-made lever jig — for medium and large parts. Suppliers ship large magnets with plastic spacers between them precisely so a wedge can start the separation.
• Immediately isolate the separated magnet — the accident usually happens on the return trip, when the freed magnet leaps back to the stack.

Placing magnets

• Approach steel with a slide, not a landing. Contact the surface away from the target position and slide into place; a free-air approach ends in an impact that chips the plating or the magnet.
• Control the last centimeter. For medium+ parts, keep a grip that has no fingers on the approach face, or use a fixture that limits travel.
• Keep the second hand clear. Most pinches involve the hand steadying the target.

• Store attracted pairs/stacks with spacers, or on steel keeper plates — a magnet in a closed loop has a smaller external field and less demagnetization risk over time (also true for alnico specifically — see the material comparison).
• Original packaging is engineered — keep production magnets in supplier packaging until point of use; it manages both field and part protection.
• Dedicate a non-magnetic work surface (wood, plastic, aluminum, 300-series stainless) for magnet handling, with steel tools and fixtures kept a defined distance away.
• Separate strong magnets from each other in drawers — one strong magnet per bin or clear dividers; a drawer of loose strong magnets is a pinch machine.
• Temperature discipline: store below the grade's maximum operating temperature with margin — a warehouse hot spot or a sunny windowsill can put weak-suffix grades near their limits. See Magnets 101 for temperature classes.
• Label the area with field warnings (implants, media) and the handling rules for the largest size class stored.

• Need a hole, notch, or different size? Buy it as a made part — features are ground in before coating and magnetizing. Countersunk and custom geometries are normal orders; see the RFQ guide.
• If magnet fragments or dust are ever generated by accident (a shattered part), collect with damp wipes — not compressed air, not a standard vacuum — and dispose per your EH&S metal-fines procedure.
• NdFeB fire class is metal fire (Class D); water and ABC extinguishers are wrong for burning metal fines. Quantities in normal handling are tiny — the rule exists for grinding operations, which is why you shouldn't be doing them.

For shipping-related field limits — which exist to protect aircraft instruments — see Shipping Magnets by Air.

If your product containing magnets reaches homes, one hazard outranks everything in this guide: swallowed magnets. Two or more swallowed magnets (or a magnet plus a steel object) attract through intestinal walls, causing perforation and requiring surgery — small children and high-powered magnet sets are the classic case, and it drives real regulation (e.g., US CPSC 16 CFR 1262 for loose high-powered magnet products, plus toy standards like ASTM F963 and EN 71).

• Design consumer products so magnets cannot detach at foreseeable abuse loads; validate with the applicable use-and-abuse tests.
• Include ingestion warnings where standards require them, and in any case where small strong magnets are accessible.
• In the workplace, the same logic covers small loose magnets around food areas — basic housekeeping handles it.

New to strong magnets? Ask us for handling guidance sized to the specific parts on your order — large parts ship from us with spacers, keepers, and unpacking instructions matched to the part, and we're glad to review your handling setup for a new program.