Door Catches
Magnetic door catches and door stops: pull force at the working gap, and a mounting that survives the door's closing impact.
A door catch holds a door open against its stop, or shut against its jamb, by pulling a steel plate across a small gap. What sets it apart from a cabinet catch is momentum: the door arrives with force, so the magnet has to hold and the mounting has to survive the hit.
Floor and wall stops, and door-edge catches
Floor and wall door stops usually take a pot or cup magnet with a countersunk or threaded fixing, holding the door open against a strike plate on the door. Door-edge catches keep a door or an access panel shut, and take a smaller magnet set into the edge or a pocket — a bare block or a straight bar magnet is the common choice there. The straight bar also turns up in the everyday closures — door stops and magnetic mosquito-net door curtains — where a bar set into the edge or hem does the holding. The mounting decides the form, and the pull target follows the gap the mounting creates.
Material and coating follow the door
An anisotropic Y30 ferrite is the workhorse grade here, holding a surface field above 1,000 gauss at the pole face. Strontium ferrite closes the requirement where the pull is modest and there is room for the magnet; sintered NdFeB answers where the same hold has to come out of a smaller envelope. Whether the door is interior or exterior decides uncoated ferrite against a plated NdFeB, because the catch on an exterior gate sits in humidity an interior door does not.
What to state on the drawing
The pull force the catch must hold at its working gap, against its steel counterpart; the mounting (cup, countersunk bore or press fit) and the strike plate it pulls against; and whether the door is interior or exterior, so the coating follows the exposure.
Key Electromagnetic & Mechanical Requirements
The magnet requirements this application imposes, and what to send us for a first assessment.
Holding / Pull Force
The pull force the catch must hold at its working gap, against the steel strike plate it pulls.
A circuit value, not a magnet value alone: the magnet, the counterpart, the gap and the contact area set it together.
Mounting & Impact Survival
How the magnet is retained so the brittle magnet never takes the door's closing impact.
A door catch sees momentum a cabinet catch does not; the cup or housing carries the mechanical load.
Corrosion Resistance
Interior or exterior door, and whether uncoated ferrite or a plated NdFeB is needed.
An exterior gate sits in humidity an interior door does not; the coating follows the exposure.
Common Engineering Challenges
The door arrives with momentum, so the easy mistakes sit on the mounting and impact side: a bare brittle magnet asked to take the closing hit, and a pull force quoted in free space instead of at the working gap. Corrosion follows the room — an exterior gate sits in humidity an interior door does not — so uncoated ferrite against a plated NdFeB is chosen from the exposure, not the shape.
Engineering Selection Notes
Start from the pull force at the working gap against the strike plate, and state the mounting at the same time — the cup or housing that survives the impact also sets the magnetic circuit. Ferrite closes the requirement where the pull is modest and there is room; NdFeB answers where the same hold must come from a smaller envelope, with a coating selected against interior or exterior exposure.
Preferred Magnet Grades & Geometries
Pot and cup magnets with a countersunk or threaded fixing for floor and wall stops; straight bar magnets or bare blocks set into the edge or a pocket for door-edge catches. The form follows the mounting and the gap it creates.
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What the Pole Pattern Has to Match
How the magnet is magnetized follows how it works in the machine: the face that faces the air gap, the pole count around that face and the direction the field has to run are read from the assembly, not chosen from a list. If any of that is still open, say so — a sample or a photograph of the existing part is enough to start.
Magnetization feasibility depends on the material, manufacturing process, geometry and required pole pattern. Send us your drawing, sample or magnetization diagram for evaluation.
Magnetization directions and pole patterns explained → · Send the drawing or a sample →
Reviewed by the ProfurtherMag team.