Tabletop motor using an entirely new driving principle

Ron Czapala

http://phys.org/news/2014-09-tabletop-motor-principle.html

"We have proven the concept of a new motor that uses electric fields rather than magnetic fields to transform electricity into a rotary force," says company co-founder Dan Ludois, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UW.

Actually, the concept is not entirely new: Benjamin Franklin and others described and built motors based on electrostatic forces back in the 18th and 19th centuries, but none achieved practical operation.

...nested stationary and rotating plates are held hairs-width apart by a unique air-cushioning strategy. An electric voltage delivered to the fixed plates creates an electrostatic field that attracts the rotating plates in a way that forces them to spin.

Martin_H

There's a guy on YouTube who has them beat by two years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsS2cfFCHW4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o03QXi69MwI

Ron Czapala

Martin_H wrote: »

There's a guy on YouTube who has them beat by two years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsS2cfFCHW4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o03QXi69MwI

Ah yes! The ol' electric fly swatter/soda can motor!

Pretty neat actually!

GordonMcComb

I'm always suspicious of claims of improvement where high voltage (hundreds or thousands of volts) is concerned. Turns out the special treatments to deal with both generating and using the high voltage -- arcing, xray and ozone production, and other artifacts -- offset the real advantages. So, we'll see.

OTOH, a good, strong motor that doesn't require rare earth magnets would be beneficial, geopolitically and otherwise.