The Blade Magnet™ Story
Magnetic Products Inc. (MPI) presents the Blade Magnet™, a powerful liquid finger trap with an innovative design.
The Blade Magnet™ features an ergonomic power-grip handle that mimics a sword hilt, allowing operators to use larger forearm muscles rather than wrist muscles for better control and reduced strain during cleaning and inspection. It employs a single 2-inch tube for enhanced durability and easier cleaning, achieving a remarkable 11,500 gauss strength, significantly higher than typical models. Additionally, it includes a metal-detectable stripper for improved product safety. The Blade Magnet™ comes standard with the Intell-I-Mag® platform which allows real-time monitoring of magnet saturation.
The Blade Magnet™ is designed to process diverse liquids common in food, chemical, and pharmaceutical processing, boiler protection (closed systems), and paper mills. It effectively removes ferrous contaminants while maintaining unrestricted flow. The Blade Magnet™ is constructed with high-quality rare earth neodymium magnets and 100% stainless steel housing for durability while adhering to USDA standards for safety. The design minimizes maintenance needs with no moving parts and includes protective elements to enhance the lifespan of the magnet.
Solving an Industry-Wide Challenge
Liquid finger trap magnetic separators, or liquid trap magnets (LFTs), are specialized devices designed to remove ferrous contaminants from liquid or slurry processing systems. These tools effectively capture metal particles, such as work-hardened stainless steel, as liquids pass through them, utilizing powerful neodymium magnets arranged with closely spaced magnetic fingers. LFT mechanisms ensure product purity and protect flow lines from contamination. They are essential in the food and beverage sector, ensuring the quality and safety of products like soups and sauces, especially in high-speed and high-pressure conditions. Their design directs liquids through a network of magnets, offering consistent protection in non-fibrous fluids and improving operational efficiency and product safety across various industrial applications.
Until the MPI Blade Magnet™, every liquid finger trap magnetic separator on the market shared the same universal design flaws and operational headaches. Key design issues of liquid trap magnetic separators include limited magnetic effectiveness, challenges in cleaning, flow interruption, and
hygiene concerns, which impact efficiency and safety. Additionally, unknown visibility into metal saturation can trigger unnecessary production shutdowns, resulting in costly interruptions.
Cleaning and maintenance are complex traditional with liquid finger traps, potentially increasing downtime and impeding compliance with hygiene standards. Additionally, operators are at risk for pinching injuries and tube integrity is at risk for potential damage during maintenance and cleaning -
elevating the risk of equipment failures and production delays. This is especially true during clean-in-place (CIP) procedures of closed-circuit systems.
Together these challenges complicate financial management and adherence to regulations, especially under HACCP guidelines.
The Blade Magnet™ addresses all of these known challenges.
Key Features
Magnetic Products Inc. (MPI) unsheathes the most powerful Liquid Finger Trap model on the market - the Blade Magnet™. The Blade Magnet™ boasts several first-to-market features:
Ergonomic Power Grip Design - The only Liquid Finder Trap in the industry with an ergonomic power-grip design. The Blade Magnet™ handle architecture resembles the hilt of a sword. The operator releases the magnet using a contoured power grip; the power tool, or pistol grip, uses the large muscles of the forearm to provide the highest possible grip force, allowing
for maximum physical control when cleaning or inspecting the magnet. This reduces strain on the operator’s arm, better controls product splatter, and contributes to a safer production environment.
Single Tube Engineered for Durability and Strength - A single 2-inch tube replaces the industry standard multiple tube design. MPI’s single tube design makes cleaning trap metal from the magnet much easier and safer, as the operator removes metal from one tube magnet rather than five. This state-of-the-art single-tube design allows for a thicker-than-average tube wall, which provides better durability properties. Liquid flows into the magnet housing and across the 2-inch tube magnet; the magnet captures the metal with minimal back pressure and turbulence additions, reducing the impact on flow characteristics. MPI’s Blade Magnet™ design offers the highest holding force in the market—11,500 gauss strength or 22 lbs. pull test readings (with a ½ inch ball). A typical liquid finger trap magnetic separator usually has a gauss strength ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 gauss. The Blade Magnet™’s 11,500 gauss holding force comes standard on all the 2-inch LFT options and is significantly higher than most applications require.
Metal Detectable Stripper - MPI has incorporated a simple, but long- overdue, metal-detectable stripper, simplifying the cleaning process of the magnetic separator, reducing downtime and ensuring product quality and safety downstream.
Optimum Flowability and Strength - Magnetic liquid traps utilize strong, high-energy rare earth neodymium magnets rated for high temperatures to effectively eliminate ferrous contaminants from liquid processing and conveying lines.
The MPI series of magnetic liquid traps are designed to accommodate various liquids commonly used in food processing facilities. Whether handling milk, acidic orange juice, heavy oils, syrups, or chunky vegetable soup, or other industrial products, MPI’s Blade Magnet™ provides the ideal
magnetic liquid trap for any liquid requirements.
As the product is pumped through the magnet housing, ferrous tramp metal adheres to a 2-inch diameter magnetic tube. This collection occurs behind the tube, aligned with the product flow, to avoid any wash-off. Non-magnetic particles are separated by gravity and gather in the sump at the bottom of the magnet enclosure.
The MPI 2-inch LFT magnetic tube safeguards product flow lines and pumps by magnetically extracting ferrous contaminants from the product flow. It offers liquid purification and wet separation for a diverse range of industries and applications, including, but not limited to, chemicals, food processing, boiler protection (closed systems), pharmaceuticals, and paper mills.
Constructed for durability, strength, and straightforward cleaning, MPI’s tube design is clean and simple, featuring no moving parts. The powerful, permanent magnetic element of the Blade Magnet™ is engineered for high performance under operating pressures up to 150 PSI and can withstand temperatures up to 221°F (105°C).
MPI 2-inch tubes are made from premium-grade rare earth neodymium magnet material, while the housing features 100% stainless steel construction in either 304 or 316 grades. MPI adheres to USDA food-grade sanitary standards; MPI trap magnets are liquid-tight and equipped with food-grade O-rings.
Intell-I-Mag® Sensor-Enabled Magnetic Separation - Intell-I-Mag® is a technology platform that pairs sensors within a magnetic separator with an app or computer-based dashboard to measure and report magnet saturation in real-time. This patented system is the first and only magnetic separation technology of its kind. MPI’s Blade Magnet™ comes Intell-I-Mag®—Ready as standard, so it’s easy and cost-effective to enable Intell-I-Mag® at any time.
MPI’s Intell-I-Mag® Blade Magnet™ monitors for tube integrity and mitigates risk due to potential damage to tubes during maintenance and cleaning, especially for clean-in-place (CIP) procedures of closed-circuit systems because of the technology’s temperature read out capability.
Proven Benefit and ROI
Intell-I-Mag® is patented technology exclusively available from Magnetic Products, Inc. Magnetic Product Inc.’s intelligent magnet design self-monitors its performance in real time 24/7 to maintain peak performance.
The Intell-I-Mag® Controller monitors tramp metal saturation levels on the working surface of the magnetic separator in real time. The magnetic separator has sensors embedded into the separator that measure the strength of the magnetic field. These sensors report data collected in real time to the Intell-I-Mag® Controller. The controller can be programmed to automatically alert operators to clean the magnetic separator remotely when it reaches industry-designated saturation levels.
Intell-I-Mag® is engineered with versatility and compatibility in mind:
- The Intell-I-Mag® Controller and App monitor within a 25m (80ft.) radius.
- The Intell-I-Mag® system can be rated NEMA 4X for wet applications or where high-pressure washdown is required.
- Suitable for high-temperature applications. Good for operating temperatures up to 105C (221F). With intermittent temperatures < 30 seconds for cleaning up to 125C (257F).
- The permanent magnet will continue to capture tramp metal if the controller is disconnected or not working for any reason.
- Intell-I-Mag® can be added to any self-clean unit at any time.
Before Intell-I-Mag®, there was no way for an operator to know the saturation level of their magnetic separator other than by shutting down the production line to check.
Intell-I-Mag® changes that. One Intell-I-Mag® early-adopter was able to reduce their total number of magnet cleaning stoppages by more than 2/3rds in the first year of piloting the system, and, as a result, reduced downtime and human resource expenditures required to maintain their magnetic separators, increasing revenue by more than $1.5M. That’s the power of an intelligent magnet.
In addition to capacity alerts, Intell-I-Mag® automatically collects and logs cleaning history and collection trends, letting the operator – and QA/QC personnel – know when it was cleaned, when there was a spike in saturation, and what events – for example, deliveries – were the most significant
contributors to metal in the product stream. The improved production quality and e fficiency won Intell-I-Mag® Best of Show at The International Association of Operative Millers (IAOM) and Best in Supplier Plant Effi ciency at the International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE) in its inaugural year.
Magnetic Products, Inc is Leading an Evolution in Metal Control with Intell-I-Mag®’s disruptive technology
- Improved confidence that the magnetic separator is performing at peak, capturing the most challenging tramp metal in, including work-hardened stainless steel.
- Assurance that vendors are not unloading tramp metal into your
facility at receiving locations. - Earlier metal detection, which protects equipment throughout the production line.
- Reduced downtime by only shutting down a line to clean a magnet when needed.
- Increased equipment e fficiency and monitoring reduces maintenance costs.
- Prolonged magnetic viability and protection against degradation with the built-in temperature monitoring.
- Optimized labor productivity - employees can perform duties besides checking magnets.
- Confidence that plant operators have cleaned the magnet through the data validation of the Intell-I-Mag® sensors.
- Decreased staff hours required for maintaining magnetic separators.
- Automated QC data collection and improved data quality for internal QA programs, auditors, and customers.
- Elimination of paper cleaning records through automatic data logging.
Industry Legacy
Magnetic Products Inc. (MPI) has revolutionized the industry for 43 years with its unwavering commitment to R&D and the core value of high-performance engineering by introducing the world’s first quick-clean permanent magnetic separators with the self-cleaning chute magnet in 1983, the patented magnetic can-laner conveyor in 1989, and the patented reciprocating drawer magnet in 1991.
Magnetic Products, Inc. (MPI) is a Michigan-based OEM focused on developing and manufacturing cutting-edge magnetic separation and material handling equipment for food and bulk material processors, metal stamping companies, and related industries.
Combining advanced manufacturing with over 40 years of industry experience, the company is pioneering new sensor-enabled product lines to complement its proprietary shakers and conveyor systems. In addition, MPI conducts audits on metal control systems and sets the industry standard for system maintenance requirements.