Here's What this Small Cylinder In Your Laptop Charger is for...

These are Ferrite beats or ferrite chokes

Usually, you can see cylindrical parts in laptop chargers and power cords of keyboard, mouse, printer cables, etc. These bumps are termed as ferrite beads or ferrite chokes.

Basically they’re shock absorbers

What might happen if the charging cable or power cord does not have such a part? Well, it is known that electric current passes through a charging cable to power the device. This creates radio energy within the cable and emits it as waves outside the cable.

Prevents unwanted use of energy

The concept is similar to how an antenna actually works when it comes to converting electrical power into radio energy and the other way round. The cable will transmit and receive signals to and from the gadgets that surround it with the same capability. Eventually, the electric power will be used unnecessarily and hinder the actual purpose of charging the device it was designed for.

Ferrite beads prevent noisy signals

Also, these signals that are transmitted will interfere with the nearby electronic devices and result in noisy signals that will result in distorted radio signal or inability to tune up to a specific channel.

It helps get the work done

The ferrite beads will block the emission of radio waves from the cable and uses the electrical power only for the charging purpose.

What makes a ferrite bead?

A typical ferrite bead is formed by an insulated wire that is wrapped around a magnetic material just as shown in this picture.