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He Who Controls Magnetism

He Who Controls Magnetism

He Who Controls Magnetism

(OP)
The North American Eagle was the main subject of the documentary on the Discovery Channel. This provided the information on Magna Force who is supplying the non-contact brakes to slow the car during the speed run.

http://www.landspeed.com/Default.asp

A little about the magnetic breaking on NAE.

http://www.landspeed.com/070106.asp

Found these sites from information given on the Discovery Channel documentary About the NAE.
The first two are essentially the same company working in different directions.

http://www.magna-force.com/

http://www.levx.com/


RE: He Who Controls Magnetism

Interesting, but somewhat lacking in detail.

Do you think the brakes are different from conventional eddy current brakes?

I used home-made magnetic couplings years ago to drive stuff inside a vacuum bell jar.

RE: He Who Controls Magnetism

(OP)
It the documentary there appeared to be emphasis on the simplicity, just an AL rotor and an Al disk with the embedded permanent magnets. The TV demonstration utilized a lathe with attached power meter (%) and as the magnetic component approached the spinning Al rotor in the chuck the power meter immediately began to climb toward the 100% mark.
The diagram explaining the brake showed a typical eddy current field loop.

It didn't show how the magnetic rotor would be advanced toward the other rotor.

It didn't explain how the absorbed energy would be dissipated.

RE: He Who Controls Magnetism

Eddy current brakes that I've used just heat the brake disc up and radiate/convect the heat away.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: He Who Controls Magnetism

If the disk is aluminium and it gets red hot, umm

Regards

eng-tips, by professional engineers for professional engineers
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: He Who Controls Magnetism

I used to deal with electric retarders that went into the drivelines of trucks and trailer axles.  One demonstration that I always did when I installed one in a truck was leave the rear driveshaft uninstalled and pull the retarder with the engine in a higher gear.  This was to do two things; first it was to demonstrate to the owner that the installation was vibration free, but more than that, it was to demonstrate the raw power of the retarder.  I never saw an engine that could pull the retarder full on in the highest gear.  I saw a lot of cherry red flywheels during the demo.

rmw

RE: He Who Controls Magnetism

Has anyone looked at the Levx website? They seem to imply stable magnetic levitation using magnets only and I thought this was impossible to do.

RE: He Who Controls Magnetism

Make a cup-shaped magnet.  Throw second magnet into the cup.  It floats... and it's stable.

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

RE: He Who Controls Magnetism

If I push on the floating magnet and release, gravity and the surrounding magnetic field will help resettle the magnet into the center of the cup.  Of course, a large enough perturbation will knock it out, but then you're breaking the rules at that point.

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

RE: He Who Controls Magnetism

@macgyvers2000:

Show me how you make a 'cup-shaped magnet' that has a passive rotationally symmetrical magnetic field that pushes 'up' and repels your other magnet even when given a small perturbation in any horizontal direction.

You do THAT, and you could be very rich.

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