Advanced multipole magnets you can program to align, latch, spring and hold.
An ordinary magnet has one north and one south — it just sticks. An advanced multipole magnet carries a precise, computer-controlled pattern of many poles across its face, so it can align, latch, spring or hold exactly the way you design it — behaviour an ordinary north-south magnet can’t give you. (You’ll also see these called coded or programmable magnets.) This site is the hub for the whole field: what they are, who makes them, and where to buy real demo magnets and kits.
Pick what the magnet should do.
Choose a magnet by what it does, not its size or grade. Every link goes to a real store, in stock, with U.S. shipping.
Align
Two halves that find dead-center and lock there, then release with a twist.
Shop align
Latch
A designed hold with an easy, repeatable release, not an over-strong permanent grab.
Shop latch
Spring
A magnetic spring that pushes back through a stroke, with no metal to fatigue.
Shop springDetent
Click-stops and indexed positions set by the pole pattern, not a mechanism.
Shop detent
Demo & kits
See align, latch, spring and detent behaviour in your hand before you design them in.
Shop demo and kits
Accessories
Constraining rods, keeper plates and the parts that complete a build.
Shop accessoriesA magnet with a pattern printed on its face.
Ordinary magnets have one north pole and one south. A coded magnet’s face carries many small designed regions, so instead of a single dumb pull it can center itself, hold at a set force, release with a twist, or spring back through a stroke.
Thousands of tiny poles, arranged to do a job.
A maxel is a single magnetic pixel, one of the many small poled regions printed across a coded magnet's face. Arrange enough of them and the magnet starts to behave.
Change the pattern and you change the behaviour: alignment strength, engagement distance, holding force, release torque. It is the same technology pioneered as Polymagnet by Correlated Magnetics Research.
Who makes this, and who sets the standards.
The permanent-magnet vertical, mapped: the makers and brands, the suppliers behind them, and the research and standards that define the work.
Makers & brands 61
K&J Magnetics, Apex Magnets, CMS Magnetics, Applied Magnets, totalElement, SuperMagnetMan, Stanford Magnets, First4Magnets…
See allSuppliers 26
MP Materials, Lynas Rare Earths, China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech, Shenghe Resources, Iluka Resources, Energy Fuels, USA Rare Earth, Arafura Rare Earths…
See allStandards & research 11
Magnetics Business & Technology (Magnetics Magazine), IEEE Magnetics Society, International Magnetics Association (IMA), Adamas Intelligence, Argus Media — Rare Earths, Project Blue, USGS — Rare Earths (Mineral Commodity Summaries), Benchmark Mineral Intelligence…
See allTechnology 1
Correlated Magnetics Research (Polymagnet)
See allLatest from the magnet industry.
- Coded magnets do things ordinary magnets can't. Precise alignment, latch-on-contact, a contactless spring and rotational detents are all written into the pole pattern instead of built from moving parts.
- The category traces to Correlated Magnetics Research and its maxel printing. The pattern is written onto a standard magnet blank, so the real work lives in the magnetizing fixture and the software.
- The fastest-growing uses are phone and tablet mounts that rotate and hold, smart latches and enclosures, rotational indexing, self-aligning fixtures, and tool-free service panels.
- Design software lets an engineer simulate a pole pattern and order the custom magnet it produces, bridging a magnet that behaves and a real part number.
- Buyer education is the difference. Magnetic viewing film and demo kits let someone feel align, latch, spring and hold before designing them in, which no datasheet can do.
- The magnet distribution market is unusually fragmented, with dozens of independent regional distributors and family-held makers, many without succession plans.
Coded magnets in action.
Questions people ask.
What is a coded magnet?
A coded magnet has a designed pattern of small magnetic regions printed across its face, instead of one plain north and south pole. The behavior is written into the pattern, so the same magnet can align, latch, spring or hold.
What is a Polymagnet?
Polymagnet is the programmable-magnet product line from Correlated Magnetics Research, who invented the technology. It is a pattern printed onto a standard magnet blank, not a new magnet material.
What does the N number in a magnet grade mean?
The N is for neodymium and the number is the material's maximum energy product in MGOe, roughly how much magnetic energy it can store. It rates the material, not the pull force of a finished part.
What is the strongest magnet you can buy?
Sintered neodymium (NdFeB) at the top commercial grades. Strongest on paper is often the wrong choice once heat or corrosion are involved, so match the grade to the conditions rather than the headline number.
Are neodymium magnets the same thing as rare earth magnets?
Neodymium magnets are one kind of rare-earth magnet, and samarium-cobalt is another. The rare earths are not geologically rare; the processing is what is concentrated in a few countries.
What's the difference between neodymium, samarium cobalt and ferrite magnets?
They differ on the four things that decide most designs: strength, heat tolerance, corrosion resistance and cost. Neodymium is strongest, samarium-cobalt handles the most heat, and ferrite is the cheapest.
What are the disadvantages of neodymium magnets?
They corrode without a coating, they are brittle and chip, they lose strength as they heat up, and their supply is exposed to trade policy. All worth knowing before you design one in.
Is there a shortage of rare earth magnets and why are prices moving?
Since 2025 China has run an export-licensing regime covering heavy rare earths, finished magnets and magnet-making equipment, and the feedstock is priced more by policy than by demand. That is the mechanism behind the price moves.
Get real magnets in your hand.
A demo kit shows you align, latch, spring and detent behaviour before you commit them to a design. In stock, U.S. shipping, 30-day returns.