Hey everyone, it’s Jake, the guy who’s been shipping shaped magnets to labs and research centers for the last 8 years. If you’ve ever browsed our site before, you know I’m not the type to ramble about specs or get super jargon-heavy—today I wanna talk about something that’s close to my chest: how the magnets we make actually move scientific research forward, one custom shape at a time. Let’s cut to the chase, shaped magnets aren’t just “different-looking” versions of regular bar magnets—they’re game-changers for researchers, and I see that play out every single week when we ship a new batch to some university or national lab. Shaped Magnets
First off, let’s get one thing straight: regular round or rectangular magnets work for basic fridge stuff or middle school science projects, but when you’re trying to test quantum particles or grow human stem cells, you need a magnetic field that’s exactly the right shape. Like, imagine trying to heat a pizza—you can toss it in a regular oven, but if you want a perfectly crispy crust and melty cheese only in specific spots, you need a pizza stone or a rotating tray. That’s what shaped magnets do for research. Let’s start with quantum physics, because that’s where I’ve seen the most wild, groundbreaking stuff happen with our magnets. A few months back, we sent a set of custom horseshoe-shaped neodymium magnets to a small quantum computing lab in Colorado. Their project was studying “trapped ions”—super tiny particles that hold quantum bits (qubits) for quantum computers. The problem was, their old magnet setup was creating random magnetic “noise” that made the ions wobble, which messed up their qubit stability. We tweaked the horseshoe’s curvature so the magnetic field was super uniform in a tiny 1mm gap—exactly the space where they held the ions. They emailed us a month later saying that their qubit coherence time (how long a qubit holds information) doubled. That’s huge—because right now, quantum computers only hold qubits for a few milliseconds before they lose data. If you can extend that, you can build bigger, more powerful quantum machines. Without that specific shaped magnet, that lab would’ve been stuck.
Another big area is biomedical research—think stem cell studies and cancer research. A lot of labs are using magnetic nanoparticles to deliver drugs directly to cancer cells, or to guide stem cells to grow into specific tissues (like heart muscle or nerve cells). If you use a regular magnet, the nanoparticles spread all over, because the field is too broad. But if you have a shaped magnet—say, a concave disc that’s curved to match the shape of a petri dish—you can focus the magnetic field right in the center where your cells or drug particles are. Last year, we worked with a team at a research hospital in Boston that was testing magnetic guided therapy for brain tumors. They needed a ring-shaped magnet that fit perfectly around a small skull model—so they could guide magnetic drug carriers straight to the tumor without damaging healthy brain tissue. Our engineering team worked with them for two weeks adjusting the inner and outer diameter of the ring, and the field strength at the edge of the ring was exactly what they needed. The lead researcher told us that pre-clinical tests with mice were way more successful than their old setup, because 30% more drug reached the tumor. That’s the kind of impact shaped magnets have that you don’t see in textbooks—they’re tailored to solve exact problems researchers have, not just fit a standard part.
Wait, let’s not leave out materials science—this is where a lot of new tech gets invented, from better batteries to flexible electronics. For example, a team at a national lab in California was studying 2D materials (super thin layers of atoms, like graphene) that could be used for next-gen phone batteries. They needed a magnetic field that was “gradient” (getting stronger or weaker in a specific direction) to test how the material’s properties changed. A rectangular magnet would create a uniform field, but a custom wedge-shaped magnet we made for them created a linear gradient—so as they moved the 2D material along the wedge, they could measure changes in conductivity that they couldn’t pick up before. They ended up publishing a paper on that, and they cited our magnets in the acknowledgments. That’s the coolest part of my job—getting random emails from researchers saying, “Hey, we used your magnet in our big paper!” It reminds me that we’re not just selling parts, we’re enabling discoveries.
I know what some of you are thinking: “Aren’t electromagnets better for research?” Yeah, electromagnets have their place—they can be turned on and off, adjusted in strength—but they’re big, expensive, and they need a power supply. Shaped permanent magnets (that’s what we specialize in, mostly rare-earth neodymium ones) are tiny, lightweight, don’t need power, and create a stable, consistent field 24/7. For small, bench-top research projects, they’re way more practical than electromagnets. Like, if a grad student is working on a small project in their office lab, they don’t have space for a giant electromagnet setup. They can use our custom shaped magnet that fits on their workbench, and get the exact field they need. We’ve shipped magnets to grad students working on everything from new MRI tech to tiny magnetic sensors for space missions. That’s the thing about research—most of it isn’t just big national lab stuff, it’s small, iterative work by students and professors in their own labs, and our magnets make that work possible.
Let’s talk about how we make these magnets, because that’s probably what makes them so good for research—we don’t do one-size-fits-all. A lot of magnet suppliers make standard shapes (bars, discs, blocks) in bulk, but for research, you might need a shape that’s never been made before. Maybe it’s a custom hexagon for a particle detector, or a curved arc to fit a specific chamber, or a tiny 0.5mm sphere for a microfluidics experiment. Our engineering team works with researchers step-by-step—they send us their specs, we run tests on the magnetic field shape, adjust the curvature or size, send a prototype, tweak again, until it’s perfect. I remember a project from last year where a team was working on a microfluidic chip for sorting blood cells. They needed a set of 10 tiny, custom pyramid-shaped magnets to put on the chip, each one only 2mm tall. If we had tried to make those from a standard block, the field would’ve been too uneven, but by shaping them like pyramids, we got a concentrated field at the tip of each pyramid, which let them sort different blood cell types by size and magnetism. That’s the kind of tiny, precise shape you can’t get from a regular magnet supplier, and that’s what our customers come to us for.
Another area where shaped magnets are killing it is space research. Yeah, space! Researchers sending small satellites (CubeSats) up need parts that are small, reliable, and can survive extreme conditions (temperature changes, radiation, vacuum). We made a set of custom cylindrical magnets with a notch cut out for a CubeSat’s magnetic attitude control system. Those magnets help the satellite point itself in the right direction using Earth’s magnetic field. A regular cylindrical magnet would’ve worked, but the notch let them mount it perfectly to the satellite’s circuit board without extra parts, saving space and weight. The CubeSat launched last year, and the team emailed us saying the attitude control is working way better than expected, all because of that tiny shaped notch. It’s wild to think that a magnet we made here in our workshop is up in space helping collect data about solar flares.
Wait, let’s address a common misconception: some people think shaped magnets are only for super high-tech, expensive research, but that’s not true. We also work with smaller universities that don’t have huge budgets. We offer prototype batches for as little as a few hundred dollars, which is way cheaper than custom parts from other industries. A lot of undergrads and grad students don’t have a lot of funding, so we make sure to keep our prototype pricing reasonable, because we want to help the next generation of researchers. Last semester, a group of undergrads from a state university used a custom shaped magnet we made for their project on magnetic levitation for small vehicles. They ended up winning a national science fair, and they told us that if our magnet was too expensive, they would’ve had to scrap the project. That’s why I do this—beyond the money, it’s about helping people who are excited about science actually make their ideas work.
Now, I know some of you might be reading this thinking, “Okay, that’s cool, but how do I get a shaped magnet for my research?” I get it—you might be a researcher or a lab manager, and you have a specific problem that standard magnets can’t solve, and you need something tailored. Here’s the thing: we work with all kinds of research projects, from small bench-top studies to big national lab experiments. All you have to do is reach out—send us your specs (what shape do you need, what’s the required field strength, what size gap or space do you have), or even just tell us what you’re trying to do, and our engineering team will help you figure out the right shape. No pressure, no salesy pitch, just people who know magnets and research working with you to find a solution.
Let me wrap this up. Shaped magnets aren’t just components—they’re tools that unlock new discoveries. Whether it’s extending quantum qubit coherence, helping deliver cancer drugs more effectively, enabling 2D material research for better batteries, powering CubeSat attitude control, or helping undergrads win science fairs, these custom-shaped magnets are a quiet backbone of modern scientific research. We’re proud to be part of that, shipping magnets that help researchers turn ideas into real breakthroughs. If you’re working on a project and need a custom shaped magnet that fits your exact needs, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’re here to help.
Ring Magnets References:
- “Magnetic Field Shaping for Trapped Ion Qubit Stability,” Journal of Applied Physics, 2022
- “Targeted Drug Delivery Using Custom-Designed Permanent Magnets for Brain Tumor Therapy,” Biomaterials Science, 2023
- “Gradient Field Wedge Magnets for 2D Material Conductivity Studies,” Nature Materials, 2021
- “Attitude Control Systems for CubeSats Using Custom Shaped Permanent Magnets,” Acta Astronautica, 2022
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