Sending Fridge magnets via RM.

[Efour]

Bit of a very random question, one that you may have or had experience with working for RM or as a customer.

My sister sent me, as a joke, some fridge magnets that she obtained from a charity shop. She is one of these Vintage clothes type idiots that buys them for a few pounds and sells them to Hipsters for 1000% profit..

Yesterday I found a letter on the door mat that appeared to have been opened and resealed, but empty...

After about 20 seconds of panic, wondering if someone had finally cracked and sent me Anthrax in retaliation for years of internet trolling, I checked the franking and noticed it was from my sisters area, 2+2 = 5.

I call her, she informs me of the hilarity of cat shaped fridge magnets. I tell her that no such magnets are present, at this point i also remove the gas mask and rubber gloves.

I read RM website now....

Magnetised material
Magnetised material with a magnetic field strength of 0.418A/m or more at a distance of 4.6m from the outside of the package.

I cross check with Wiki....

10−3 millitesla 5 mT 50 G the strength of a typical refrigerator magnet

I think im gonna TL: DR myself as to ask the question...

Royal Mail stole my magnets because they are a prohibited item? Yes or No ?
A crafty Postman postman stole my magnets cos he/she likes cats as much as me ?

 

[Aod]

If they weren't packaged properly then they could well have been removed from the package but RM should have included a note/stamp to this effect.

You can definitely send magnets through the mail but adequare precautions need to be taken into account regarding magnetic field emissions which can be highly problematic in the postal system. Almost all magnets should be packaged such that there's at least 20mm of clearance between the magnets surface and the outer surface of the packaging on all sides. If the magnets are high-strength ones (NIB magnets for example) then this clearance must be increased.

Large ultra-strong magnets are often shipped in crates/boxes with more than a foot of clearance in all directions, which is of course rather entertainingly expensive.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

What is the strength of a typical magnet at 4.6m?

Best you crack out the calculator and compare it to the defined limit of 0.418A/m. There's your answer.

 

[Malevolence]

The postal system in this country is getting more and more ridiculous by the day. Whatever happened to simply posting something and it arriving unhindered at the destination?

 

[tom_e]

The postal system in this country is getting more and more ridiculous by the day. Whatever happened to simply posting something and it arriving unhindered at the destination?

To be fair I can see the problem with strong magnets as they're going to cause a problem if they attach themselves to the inside of a sorting machine, it's things like not being able to send a Li-Ion phone battery on it's own but it's fine to send it in the phone that get me as it makes returning things a pain.

 

[Efour]

What is the strength of a typical magnet at 4.6m?

Best you crack out the calculator and compare it to the defined limit of 0.418A/m. There's your answer.

My head is spinning just thinking about that.

 

[Efour]

If they weren't packaged properly then they could well have been removed from the package but RM should have included a note/stamp to this effect.

Indeed i was merely perplexed at the lack of such a note. I suspected that they could/did cause an issue in a sorting machine.

 

[B@Th*nG]

magnets?

miracles!

B@

 

[MooMoo444]

I think your fridge magnets will be stuck to the side of the RM sorting machine

 

[Westyfield2]

Could you take the package to your local collection office and ask them? If indeed they have removed something because in their opinion it's dangerous, then they're surely meant to leave a note saying why you've got an empty package and telling you not to do it again.

 

[DXP55]

Has anyone recently had a HDD come through the door - If so you will know they are in a package not much bigger than HDD. - Now has anyone ever took HD apart - if so you will find two very strong magnet's in there so why are they different.

I look some out and held one and moved it nearer to the other - at over a inch away they shot together and pinched skin on my finger - it hurt.

dave

 

[tom_e]

Hold a piece of ferrous metal near a hard drive and see what happens. The magnetism doesn't escape the HDD casing.

 

[Skunkworks]

This explains why the 4 magnets I bought a few weeks ago, each the size of a £1 coin, came in something the size of a shoe box.

 

[MooMoo444]

How do magnets work?

 

[Aod]

This explains why the 4 magnets I bought a few weeks ago, each the size of a £1 coin, came in something the size of a shoe box.

Exactly.

How do magnets work?

Buggered if I know!

 

[Skunkworks]

How do magnets work?

Aliens, possibly of the ancient variety.

 

[413x]

Magnesium is a really interesting read if you can stomach concepts are abstract compared to our experiences

 

[Cosimo]

I think your fridge magnets will be stuck to the side of the RM sorting machine

More likely to be stuck on a postman's fridge.

 

[nam]

How do magnets work?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnets

 

[FeFiDoh]

what were they packaged in? If they were a little heavy and only in a plain old envelope there is a chance they just tore the envelope some where along the line. Pretty common people putting things slightly to heavy for a normal envelope and it splitting.