The beam would also have to be penetrative enough of the distant mass to be moved to blend well enough with the matter of the distant mass to unify that mass with the beam. Materials like metal would not allow the field to blend in some wavelengths, at others they often would, so the traction machine would be able to make many types of beams and use the optimal fields or field combinations.
It is believed that two beams would be most optimal, bot of lower power going through the mass to be moved and then the beam would be combined with another on the other side of the mass, there the combination of the beams would be energised at the point where they meet, like a laser light show at a concert. The beams would attract this energised area because it's an implosion of the two beams that causes it to then be of radiation. Then by the implosion of the wave from this zone the distant mass would be moved by combinations of three or more of these combinination beams (just one would be sort of imbalanced, like balancing a mass on a tip of your nail, two sets of beams would fall off the highwire, three would have 3d stability). To see why it's thought the unit of two beams would be most of value to energise at the more distant realm of the mass (or somewhere optimal within it) with the light show think of a drain with water in it. If you have an implosive wave machine above the drain it may pull up a lot of the fluid in the well but the efficiency is never 100%. For the traction beam, it may actually be much lower just by resonance of the wave alone. If you have the drain with the wave like a wire or rope and you somehow could add a plug at any distance in the pipe to your wire, the plug would add a lot to your efficiency to move the water to you.
There is no theoretical limit to the amount of traction a beam of this type or a laser's force could transmit up to the higher strength of the stronger materials made of electric charges because the beams if perhaps of light are made of the same electric fields that bind the stronger chemical bonds of these types of mass. In subatomic physics it's well known that at higher energy, light behaves like a heavier particle, so not inconceivably the binding or expansion force may be much stronger than any material bound by electric fields. This idea of using lasers to bind mass by way of the strong force in may even be used to make standing waves (so minimal power loss) between atoms bound essentially by the strong force. For super strong materials, it may not need a power source beyond the setup because for example the particles that unify the heavy particles in subatomic physics are being emmited and absorbed continuously, with no loss of power. To achieve strongly bound matter the beam would have to be of the right sort and maintain the particles in a line so the strong force wouldn't cause the heavy particles to wrap around in a nucleus and explode because if massive it would be more volatile than Uranium. Optimally a binding beam of this sort would have the nonvolatility of light so no large electric ionizing charge like protons, and the binding power (or most of it) of the strong force, this might be achieved eventually by optimizing the power of the beam. A way to achieve this might be to put the strong beams in tubes and then use the tubes like small super strong wires that could be embedded in composite materials.
A use of traction machines would be by combining the outward beam like laser generating pressure with the inward traction beam at the same time, so if strong enough and with a good enough lever arm masses would be moved from a distance like moving the sofa for the wife, she knows enriched lunches are good for her to bake, why? Irony!
