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Matchbook-Sized Motor Sets 1 Million RPM Record
Posted by Sean Fallon at 8:30 AM on November 15, 2008
Researchers from ETH Zurich's Department of Power Electronics have developed a matchbook-sized motor that can spin faster than any other machine in the world—over 1,000,000 rpm. In order to keep it from falling apart at such high speeds, the researchers employed a titanium shell, ultra-thin copper wire for the windings and a mysterious top-secret iron that is "previously unused for machines." So does this mean we will all be seeing million rpm engines and hard drives soon? Probably not—but products like faster drills may be feasible in the near future thanks to a Swiss company named Celeroton that has been formed to bring products based on the technology to market. [LiveScience]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
adamnfish
Posted November 15, 2008 3:53 PM
Assuming a 1 cm radius for the rotating piece that means this thing is moving at nearly 4,000,000 kph...
General Halfshaftery
Posted 11:08 AM 15/11/08
I wonder just how high a whir it made. It probably surpassed sounding fun and was really scary.
General Halfshaftery
MagnoliaBoy
Posted 11:06 AM 15/11/08
@nutbastard: Yea, but that's 16666.666 revolutions per second. It's like, Satan fast, and Satan's pretty fast. Not as fast as light though, since he's the PRINCE OF DARKNESS!!! MUAHAHAHAHA MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
MagnoliaBoy
nutbastard
Posted 11:02 AM 15/11/08
then again, if that 1" thing were a wheel it would only take 3.8 seconds to cover a mile... hmmm.
nutbastard
nutbastard
Posted 11:00 AM 15/11/08
If you could get something 1" in diameter spinning at 1,000,000 RPMs, the relative differential velocity of opposing edges of the object would only be .00000282835 % the speed of light.
So.... not THAT fast, really.
nutbastard
enchantedgoose
Posted 10:55 AM 15/11/08
it will be used to make your cellphone vibrate a whole in your leg
enchantedgoose
m4ximusprim3
Posted 10:49 AM 15/11/08
Please god don't let my dentist hear about this.
m4ximusprim3
Thats Dr Bear to You
Posted 10:44 AM 15/11/08
@rimshot515: Nice reference! I've just started reading Atlas Shrugged (I have a long, long, long way to go)
Thats Dr Bear to You
purple-pillows
Posted 10:41 AM 15/11/08
so it spins about 17,000 times in a second... faster drill... thats a good way to destroy just about anything with a screw... in under a second
but what could this be feasible in... and that motor cant have too much torque... i mean now at all... its a match book...
so other than reeling in a killer whale in outer space what could this be used for
purple-pillows
Rabid Penguin
Posted 10:40 AM 15/11/08
@rimshot515: Maybe it's adamantium... or an adamantium-like metal.
Rabid Penguin
rimshot515
Posted 10:37 AM 15/11/08
Oh oh oh! I know! It's Rearden metal!
rimshot515
Rabid Penguin
Posted 10:36 AM 15/11/08
How fast can Wonder Woman spin? I thought she was pretty close to 1 million RPMs.
Rabid Penguin
Plan303e
Posted 10:35 AM 15/11/08
I demand... one million billion trillion RPMs!
Plan303e
godwhacker
Posted 11:29 AM 15/11/08
that's speed, nearly ludicrous speed!
godwhacker
General Halfshaftery
Posted 11:26 AM 15/11/08
@Log1c:
I'm terrified just thinking about it!
General Halfshaftery
Log1c
Posted 11:18 AM 15/11/08
@General Halfshaftery: 1 Million RPM = .1667 Mhz (or 166.7 Khz) which is out of the human hearing spectrum.
Actually I think it beats out dogs even...
Log1c
4wheeldrift
Posted 11:49 AM 15/11/08
It would make for one very bada**ed slot car!@purple-pillows:
4wheeldrift
Ender305
Posted 11:44 AM 15/11/08
@nutbastard: Well what about 10' diameter wheel? I'm too lazy to figure it out myself, but that would be pretty damn fast...
Ender305
grawss
Posted 11:58 AM 15/11/08
@purple-pillows: If I had a propeller cap with one of these powering it, I'd be the baddest ass kid on the block.
grawss
BoinK
Posted 12:25 PM 15/11/08
The ladies are gonna love this.
BoinK
LittleJon
Posted 12:19 PM 15/11/08
@LittleJon: Actually, thinking back I think they didn't make it to 1,000,000 because their drive electronics were too slow. So this may well be the first machine to actually get to that speed.
LittleJon
LittleJon
Posted 12:12 PM 15/11/08
A Ph.D. student in my old university group made a 1,000,000 rpm machine about 12 years ago! It was a 0.5mm levitating aluminum disk that was designed to be a micro gyroscope.
OK, not much use to drive anything, but this is not the first 1,000,000 rpm machine!
LittleJon
qbrad
Posted 12:41 PM 15/11/08
@Thats Dr Bear to You: You do indeed and it's a great journey. Although, you can skip most of the 60 or so page rant that happens late in the book. You'll see...
Isn't MetalStorm a 1,000,000 RPM device?!
qbrad
jercb123
Posted 12:38 PM 15/11/08
@godwhacker: Amazing Reference
jercb123
FiveLiters
Posted 1:03 PM 15/11/08
Considering the music they spin in the clubs these days seems like 1,000,000 BPM,this is right on time!
FiveLiters
rimshot515
Posted 2:08 PM 15/11/08
@Thats Dr Bear to You: Nice! I just finished it (for the second time) and the "rant" is kind of important, so you should probably read it all. But hey, you just read 930 pages, so 60 won't be too bad, right?
rimshot515
sarwatmj
Posted 1:57 PM 15/11/08
This is just the start in a revolution in Mechanical/Mechatronics Engineering!
sarwatmj
Barry99705
Posted 2:54 PM 15/11/08
@godwhacker: They've gone to plaid!
Barry99705
minjae0810
Posted 3:32 PM 15/11/08
we need this for laptop fans
minjae0810
Hestika
Posted 3:50 PM 15/11/08
@Thats Dr Bear to You: I'm sorry.
Hestika
Michai
Posted 4:26 PM 15/11/08
On a serious note, this would be great for spinning prisms or mirrors in laser based systems.
Michai
Michai
Posted 4:22 PM 15/11/08
@nutbastard: I was about to check your math ... Ill take your word on it.
Michai
Michai
Posted 4:20 PM 15/11/08
@LittleJon: Thats pretty cool LJ. Just a small correction though, a levitating disk preforms no actual "work" thus cannot be a machine ;[
Michai
Michai
Posted 4:17 PM 15/11/08
This we be a great mod on my electric toothbrush.
Michai
LittleJon
Posted 5:04 PM 15/11/08
@Michai: Hey! It works for me! :-P
LittleJon
ddtx2
Posted 11:50 PM 15/11/08
I want a toy plane with that motor!
ddtx2
DakotaEpic
Posted 1:46 AM 16/11/08
@ddtx2: I can see it now, you start it up and the motor rips the front of the plane right off and shoots away into the distance haha.
DakotaEpic
uhm...Bob
Posted 2:10 AM 16/11/08
@Michai:
Oooh, spinning lasers! Great idea.
uhm...Bob
uhm...Bob
Posted 2:10 AM 16/11/08
@Michai:
That's fast enough to penetrate the most stubborn cells. Unfortunately, it won't get rid of plaque.
uhm...Bob
D_Zarster
Posted 2:08 AM 16/11/08
@Plan303e: Austin powers reference ftw.. XD
D_Zarster
uhm...Bob
Posted 2:07 AM 16/11/08
@Rabid Penguin: More like vibranium.
uhm...Bob
Jitty
Posted 3:48 AM 16/11/08
Did they do this in a vacuum, too? I'm sure spinning that fast would have caused a great deal of air to be moved around. Even if it is a disc.
Jitty
jakebathman
Posted 6:20 AM 16/11/08
@uhm...Bob: great book! man that made me happy.
I have a shirt that say's "Rearden Steel" and one that says "Who is John Galt?"
[www.johngaltgifts.com] here's a great site for some stuff, enjoy
jakebathman
FrankenPC
Posted 6:31 AM 16/11/08
hmmmmmmmmm.....
I suppose you could turn this into a non-chemical explosive. At 1 million RPM's the kinetic energy on the rotating mass would be VERY high. If the flywheel could be triggered to break apart it would be like a frag mine.
FrankenPC
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Posted 7:12 AM 16/11/08
@4wheeldrift: That might even be too much of a "load" for it.
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Posted 7:10 AM 16/11/08
@Thats Dr Bear to You: Stick with it, it's worth it, despite the hate many here have for Ayn.
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Posted 7:09 AM 16/11/08
@Rabid Penguin: Standing or sitting?
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Posted 7:18 AM 16/11/08
@minjae0810: I love laptops!
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Posted 7:16 AM 16/11/08
@Log1c: Way over.
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
Posted 7:13 AM 16/11/08
@MagnoliaBoy: How fast is darkness?
Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler
poisonfist
Posted 10:49 AM 16/11/08
@nutbastard:
No it doesn't. If it's 1" in diameter, the circumference would be pi 3.14" which makes it roughly 52,360" per second. A mile is 63,360" so it would be close to 1.2 seconds.
poisonfist
Xterm11
Posted 4:39 PM 16/11/08
You guys seem to think you can jack an elephant onto this motor and the elephant will spin at 1,000,000 rpm.
This is not the case.
I'm pretty sure this has extremely low torque, so you would have to gear down. Even after the fact, that would make one hell of a fast and powerful motor if geared at the correct ratio.
Xterm11
FrankenPC
Posted 9:14 AM 17/11/08
@Xterm11: Yeah, but the gears would have to be made of unobtanium.
FrankenPC
CZWolf
Posted 9:37 AM 17/11/08
I just wanna put it out there in the start of a comment thread. I've replied to a few with this. I just want to let it be known:
This is man's worst enemy. assuming they can keep it from exploding and make the sound... discreet.
CZWolf
CZWolf
Posted 9:36 AM 17/11/08
@BoinK: agreed. its a mans worst nightmare...
CZWolf
CZWolf
Posted 9:34 AM 17/11/08
@purple-pillows: probably the best vibrator a woman has ever seen.
CZWolf
Xterm11
Posted 4:20 PM 17/11/08
@FrankenPC: Or wishalloy.
Xterm11
Muaddib1116
Posted 12:59 AM 18/11/08
No RPMs people... RPM is already plural.
Muaddib1116
nutbastard
Posted 3:37 AM 18/11/08
@poisonfist:
sigh, i meant 1" circumference...
nutbastard
MagnoliaBoy
Posted 11:18 AM 18/11/08
@Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler: Like this.
[therecord.blogs.com]
MagnoliaBoy