As 'Mater says in Cars, you hurt your what? I don't pretend to understand this hi-tech stuff, but I know a man who does. Know, I mean; not pretend to know. He's R. Colin Johnson of the EETimes (I wonder what he made of Wally's Eeeeeeva). Seems there's a nano (nano) technology breakthrough that lowers the cost of producing rare earth magnets (not magnets to pull Earth out of orbit, presumably). And that's a good thing, not a bad thing. "Rare earth magnets are essential to NASA and [the Defense Department] for small, high-performance motors and power generators that can operate in high-temperature environments," according to C.N. Chinnasamy of Northeastern University's Center for Microwave Magnetic Materials and Integrated Circuits (NUCMMMIC). "With our process, they can be manufactured much more economically." Got it? To paraphrase Ariel, oh Flounder, don't be such a nanoblade dipole! "Other techniques for creating supermagnets composed of nanoblade dipoles have succeeded for high operating temperatures, but the rare earth magnets performed poorly at start-up when the magnets operated at room temperature. However, Northeastern University researchers claim their formulation performs well both at room temperature and at very high operating temperatures, thereby permitting applications such as smaller motors with the same performance as larger engines."
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OT: That graphic seemed cool, so I went to brucegray.com to check it out. Turns out he wants $4,000 for that sculpture. I hate art.
seoultrain:
You gotta admit, artists are the master of supply and demand.
You: “That’s really cool. Want to sell it?”
Artist: “Well, it’s the only one in the world..and I have atleast $30 in it.. How does $10K sound? Afterall, it represents how capitalism is evil and shallow. And it will impress a lot of lefty chicks.”
Make your own.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=rare+earth+magnets&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
These magnets sell for down to a couple of dollars a piece.
My grandfather who was born in a dirt floored cabin in 1903 lived to see the first space shuttle launch. I can’t wait to see the advances over my lifetime. Hover car perhaps?!
So do these simply get more power out of a smaller motor, or do they get more power from less electricity, too? In other words, are these simply going to be quicker, or are they giong to extend range?
If it’s already a PM motor, then it will be smaller and lighter, but only somewhat more efficient (as the “field” that the armature is opposing is already “free”). But if a PM replaces a field winding, the efficency increase should be significant, due to the resistive losses needed to create said field.
Funny how the world is becoming dependent on rare earth metals.
They are mined in exactly one country.
China!
I’ve always wondered if electric motor drivetrains would move down to truck/car scales (from rail locomotive scale).
Maybe this is a breakthrough that’s needed – although I’m sure implementation is at least a decade away.
Samarium Cobalt magnets are nothing new for electric motors. I used to use them back in the 70’s for slot car racing.
Old thread I know, but ….
In about 1980 Dragonfly research made a one off sportscar with cobalt/samarium permanent magnets. One motor an integral part of each rear hub. This was a diesel-electric hybrid with a small constant speed stationary diesel charging the batteries. The result was really good for the technology available at the time.
So nothing really new.
This is not just a toy magnet but JUST nanomagnets.
A major component of the HEV is the electrical machine (traction motor) used to drive the wheels. The traction motor employs a number of permanent magnets (PMs). Energy product is directly proportional to the energy stored per unit volume of the magnet; the torque produced by a PM electric motor is approximately proportional to the energy product of the PM. Increasing the energy product of the PM will proportionally increase the torque. Therefore, increasing the energy product will reduce the weight and size of the PM required to generate the same torque. Furthermore, reducing the weight and size of the PM may reduce the size of the entire motor required to generate the same torque. This will further reduce the overall weight of the motor and increase the mileage of the HEV.
Only problem: We (USA) have to depend on China since rare earth ores are mostly deposited in China.
http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2001/rpt/121559.pdf
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/purl.cover.jsp?purl=/828759-Oct536/native/