Patent ID: 11901141
Assignee: MAGSWITCH TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  B | IPC B  H

Claim 12:
13. A method of moving a ferromagnetic workpiece positioned on a support with a magnetic coupling device, the method comprising the steps of:
(a) receiving an identification of ferromagnetic workpiece to be moved with a magnetic coupling device having a plurality of workpiece contact interfaces adapted to contact the ferromagnetic workpiece, the magnetic coupling device having at least one permanent magnet which contributes to a level of magnetic flux available to the ferromagnetic workpiece at the workpiece contact interfaces;
(b) determining based on information stored in a memory related to the identified ferromagnetic workpiece at least one state of the magnetic coupling device that corresponds to the identified ferromagnetic workpiece, the at least one state having a corresponding level of magnetic flux available to the ferromagnetic workpiece at the workpiece contact interfaces of the magnetic coupling device;
(c) contacting the identified ferromagnetic workpiece with the workpiece contact interfaces of the magnetic coupling device;
(d) moving the identified ferromagnetic workpiece relative to the support with the magnetic coupling device from an initial position to a final position while sequentially configuring the magnetic coupling device in at least three states, each of the three states having a corresponding level of magnetic flux available to the ferromagnetic workpiece at the workpiece contact interfaces of the magnetic coupling device, the at least three states including the at least one state of the magnetic coupling device that corresponds to the identified ferromagnetic workpiece; and
(e) decoupling the identified ferromagnetic workpiece from the magnetic coupling device.