He Who Controls Magnetism

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/

 

[MintJulep]

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.

 

[unclesyd]

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.

 

[GregLocock]

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.

 

[patprimmer]

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.

 

[rmw]

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

 

[sreid]

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.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

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

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[sreid]

macgyvers2000,

I don't think so. see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earnshaw's_theorem

 

[MacGyverS2000]

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

 

[tinfoil]

@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.