http://www.gizmodo.com.au the Gadget Guide | Technology and consumer electronics news and reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:39:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/11/matchbooksized_motor_sets_1_million_rpm_record-2/ http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/11/matchbooksized_motor_sets_1_million_rpm_record-2/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:30:00 +0000 Sean Fallon http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/11/matchbooksized_motor_sets_1_million_rpm_record-2.html 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]

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