MAGNETIC LATCH FOR SAFETY APPLICATIONS WITH ADJUSTABLE HOLDING FORCE

摘要

A magnetic latch for industrial environments includes fixed magnetic pole pieces that may be sealed within a housing to resist environmental contamination and which provide for perpendicular engagement faces for use with gates having a rolling or swinging configuration. An RFID tag reader may be incorporated into the magnet assembly of the latch for reading a specially encoded RFID tag in a keeper portion of the magnetic latch.

主权项

1. A magnetic latch for safety applications comprising:
a magnet assembly providing a housing presenting a mounting surface extending along a first plane for attaching the housing to a gate, the housing holding a permanent magnet flanked by two sets of ferromagnetic pole pieces extending out of the housing in mutually perpendicular directions to provide a first and second magnetic engagement surfaces; and a keeper plate of ferromagnetic material presenting a magnetic engagement face extending along a plane for engaging either of the first and second magnetic engagement surfaces; wherein the housing provides a cantilevered portion projecting in a direction parallel to and displaced from the first plane so that a set of ferromagnetic pole pieces extends out of the cantilevered portion in a direction toward and perpendicular to the first plane; and wherein the keeper plate holds a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and the housing holds a RFID reader for reading a numeric code embedded in the RFID tag and the RFID reader positioned to be proximate to the RFID tag when the keeper plate is received against either of the first and second magnetic engagement surfaces.