The eight behaviors

CMR’s catalog names them Attach · Align · Latch · Spring · Twist-Release · Shear · Torque · Detent. Each one is the same trick — a sculpted spatial force function — pointed at a different job. Here is each mechanism, with the real numbers.

shipping confirmed in real products demonstrated trials, orbit or research illustrative plausible, not confirmed vendor claim company figure, not independently tested

B1 Precise self-alignment

Mechanism. A complementary code pair only reaches full attraction at exact registration; any shift turns some pairs repulsive, producing a restoring side-force that steers the parts home. Engagement happens only in the last few millimeters — parts don’t snap together from across the desk.

Numbers. A CMR tablet-connector case study holds centered and lightly repels anywhere along its length when misaligned — a self-seeking connector with no guide rails.

Side force vs lateral offset: zero and stable at registration, push-back on either side.

B2 Programmable holding force & reach shipping via IMI

Mechanism. Fine maxel patterns concentrate flux at the surface — especially effective on thin steel, where a conventional magnet’s deep field just leaks out the far side and is wasted.

Numbers. Max-Attach® (Industrial Magnetics, licensed): 28 sizes, 8–96 lb holding. “More than 2× pull, 2–8× shear” vendor claim. “MaxField 250+ lb vs ~40 lb conventional” is a single-vendor figure vendor claim.

Pull vs gap: the coded part wins at contact, the plain magnet wins at range. Pick your fight.

B3 Twist-release / slide-release

Mechanism. The code is laid out so a specific motion — a 20° twist, a 6 mm slide — drives the pair to anti-correlation: N lands on N, and the magnet that was holding now ejects its partner. Attach strong, release with a gesture, no lever or button.

Numbers. Datasheet 1002300 (1″ D-shaped disc pair, N50): 49 N (~11 lb) attract aligned; 57 N (~12.8 lb) REPEL at ±20°; re-latch window ~4 mm; about $35/pair. Sliding version 1002289 (2″ bar) switches in a 6 mm slide. This is the pair in the SmarterEveryDay video — and the mechanism NASA flew on Prandtl-M.

Force vs rotation for 1002300: +49 N hold at 0°, crossing zero, −57 N ejection at ±20°.

B4 Magnetic spring / standoff

Mechanism. Two spatial frequencies in one face: a coarse pattern attracts at range while a fine pattern repels up close. The pair floats at a designed gap — a contactless spring or vibration isolator with zero wear.

Numbers. Datasheet 1002288: spring force peaks ~25 N (~5.5 lb) near contact, fading to zero by ~15 mm. Earnshaw’s theorem still rules: this is not free levitation — every demo runs on a pin or shaft for lateral constraint.

Repulsion vs gap: stiff near contact, gone by 15 mm. The equilibrium is real; the pin is mandatory.

B5 Coded / keyed pairs — magnets with identity

Mechanism. Barker-code autocorrelation: matched and aligned = strong; anything else ≈ collapse. Mechanical lock-and-key with no moving parts — connectors that refuse the wrong socket, authentication features, anti-counterfeit seating.

Numbers. Patent-documented use: coded-Polymagnet filter interconnects (US 11,779,865 / 12,145,088 / 12,168,187) where gravity-fed filters seat only when correct via coded shear. Rejection is analog — strong, not literally zero; rejection ratios are unpublished.

Matched-aligned vs wrong-code force: roughly an order of magnitude apart (US 7,800,471).

B6 Attenuated / shaped field

Mechanism. Flux that closes into a neighboring maxel a millimeter away never reaches the room. The far field is engineered toward zero: doesn’t wipe cards, tug compasses, disturb Hall sensors, or grab steel swarf on the shop floor.

Numbers. “Near zero beyond ~0.25 inch” vendor claim — but the direction is straight physics, and it matters enormously for magnets living next to electronics.

Stray field vs distance: conventional (dashed) vs coded — the leak is designed out.

B7 Latching, detents & multi-position

Mechanism. Sculpted energy wells: a push-latch repels slightly before snapping home (built-in soft close); rotary codes click into 90° or 30° stops; multi-state parts change function with orientation. Each stop is an engineered local energy minimum. A D-flat or keyed hole carries the reaction torque.

Numbers. Spring-Latch Combo 1002288 is two devices in one part: a spring at 0°, a clamp at 180°.

Torque-energy landscape of a 4-stop rotary detent: the clicks are wells in the code.

B8 Shear, torque & composability

Mechanism. Coded faces resist sliding with true magnetic shear stiffness, not just friction from normal force — and transmit torque across an air gap: couplings and magnetic gears with built-in overload slip and zero wear (US 9,219,403).

Numbers. “2–8× shear” vendor claim. The deeper product is composability: one flat disc can attach + align + repel-when-misaligned + contain its field, all at once. A conventional magnet’s force-distance curve has one fixed shape; a coded magnet’s is a design variable that can cross zero and change sign.

Shear force vs lateral displacement: the pair fights sliding like a spring, not like sandpaper.

The cheat-sheet. 1002300 twist-release: 49 N hold / 57 N eject · 1002288 spring: ~25 N · Max-Attach: 8–96 lb · function pairs retail $10–40 vs under $2 for a plain magnet. All figures are CMR datasheets (a controlled source) or vendor marketing; no independent third-party force testing has been published — a real gap in the record, noted here so you don’t have to discover it yourself.

How do these patterns get into the metal? The MagPrinter →