Zen Magnets hold a standard AA battery. (Cyrus McCrimmon, Denver Post file)

Denver-based Zen Magnets is in a fight for survival as its long-running battle with federal safety regulators comes to a head.

A trial before an administrative law judge began this week over a proposed recall of Zen's magnetic balls issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Zen Magnets founder and owner Shihan Qusays the future of his company hinges on the outcome of the recall trial and a related case in which he is fighting a new CPSC rule that bans the sale of magnetic balls.

Already Qu has spent more than $100,000 on legal fees, representing a big chunk of Zen's projected sales this year of $500,000.

Zen Magnets is the last surviving major magnetic-ball company. The other large player, Buckyballs, stopped sales in 2012 and recently agreed to establish a trust fund to cover the costs of recalling its product.

The BB-size magnetic spheres can be molded together in sculptures or artistic designs.

But the CPSC maintains that the magnets are dangerous. The agency cites nearly 3,000 incidents of children swallowing the 5-millimeter balls during a five-year period from 2009 through 2013. Some of the accidents required emergency surgery because if two or more balls are swallowed, they can bind intestinal tissue together.

Magnets were swallowed in some incidents after children placed them in their mouths to simulate tongue and facial piercings.

"We believe that Zen Magnets are a substantial product safety hazard," said CPSC communications director Scott Wolfson.

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Denver-based Zen Magnets fights for survival in federal recall trial