A mechanical latch holds by geometry: a hook, pawl or detent physically blocks movement. It can resist high loads and impacts and gives a positive lock, but it has moving parts that wear, can jam with dirt, and needs a gap or opening for the catch.
A plain magnetic catch has no moving parts but grabs from a distance and can feel abrupt. A latch made from patterned magnets changes that. Correlated Magnetics Research's Latch Polymagnets repel each other until they are pushed to a defined distance, then attract and close. That gives a door or lid that stays open on its own and snaps shut once pushed past the transition point. CMR's applications page proposes these for cabinets and says different latch designs give different repel and attach strengths to set the feel.
There is also evidence from aerospace. CMR's blog reposts a NASA Armstrong article on a magnetic release mechanism that released a small glider from a remotely piloted aircraft five times in a row. NASA said the design potentially has fewer parts, needs less maintenance and is more reliable than conventional mechanical mechanisms, and avoids the safety process that pyrotechnic releases carry.
Choose mechanical when the joint must survive shock loads or must be lockable. Choose magnetic for sealed, wipe-clean or low-wear closures. Note that latch pairs must be constrained and centered to work properly.
WholeMagnetics, 2026-10-04. Polymagnet facts are taken from Correlated Magnetics Research’s public pages, listed below; vendor performance figures are CMR’s own.