Plastic with Magnetic Properties

[jonturka]

Dear Friends,
This is my first post after long time. During last 2 years, I was mostly working at the commercial side of office. So, a bit rusty here...
I came with a question here.
We produce a part, and customers asks for a steel ring on it. This ring should adsorb magnet for recognition at the machinery line. Not sticking purpose here.
This part will probably be polyacetal for wearing resistance (part will be gripped).
My question is; can I anyhow avoid using steel ring and use a magic additive which brings in magnetic properties to plastic and I can inject easily ?

Cheers,

[MTUHusky]

Hey Jon,

I have had some experience using a 3-D printer to print a fixture that we set a part in and place a magnet on top of it to hold it in down for measurements. I have also shot plastic over a metal insert that was later magnetized at our customer's facility after that part had cooled. I am pretty sure they make polymers that have metal particles in them but I have never used them.

I don't think you can shoot plastic with magnetic particles in it because the heat will degrade the magnetic properties. I also know they make a polymer with metal embedded into it so that after molding you can use a laser to "etch" a functioning circuit onto the plastic and that circuit can be built upon later with an electro plating process. I only bring it up because you could definitely "etch" a "sensor" into your part and for what you are trying to do, may not even need the plating process.

Hope this helps,

Husky

[iautry1973]

A few years back I used a material from Griiamid that had metallic material in it for some little magnetic blanks. It wasn't the easiest to mold with, but it worked.