switched reluctance motors in the news... again

[electricpete]

previous discussion from 2006: thread237-158042

Today's news about celebrities investing: meh

Company website (with video):

https://turntide.com/#

They make it sound like there's something new and revolutionary but I don't see what's new. We've had SRM's and VSD's and computing power for a long time. Sure there are a lot of applications waiting to be upgraded, but the company spiel sounds over-hyped to me. What do you guys think...


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(2B)+(2B)' ?

 

[waross]

I agree, Pete.
This makes me think of penny mining stocks.
Most penny mining stocks don't mine the ground, they mine gullible investors.
They claim "an exponential" increase in efficiency over inductions motors.
Given the typical high efficiency of induction motors, the exponent will be quite small.
There are several false suggestions concerning induction motors.
Are all the major motor manufacturers on the planet so naive as to not be aware of this claimed advantage over induction motors?
The website is not very informative.
It seems designed for an audience with a very short attention span.

Bill
--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[jraef]

I think what has happened is that the "need" for extra high efficiency in motors, especially for OEMs that are striving to meet overall efficiencies they need, has driven them to ECMs and PMAC motors. But the motors are expensive, so people began looking for alternatives that were not do costly for the motors. When VFD mfrs went to the expense to develop the algorithms needed for PMAC motors, they discovered that most of the work was done to make them capable of SR motors too, so it has created a resurgence of interest in that as an alternative to PMAC or ECMs. Many of the major VFD mfrs have recently released the ability to control SR motors as a standard feature now.


" We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know." -- W. H. Auden

 

[electricuwe]

It seems to be a very common business model to dig out some technology that was hot in research some decades ago, add something new -very popular to day is something digital - and claim this as a breakthrough. Very often I have doubts, if the target of the business model is really to sell products or if the owners just want to claim some funding money or sell their business a few years later to one of the larger companies that are in fear that they may have missed a trend.

Better than looking for switched reluctance motors look for synchronous reluctance motors. This technology really provides benefits vs. induction motors and it has been adopted quite widely by some major players.

 

[dArsonval]

Worked on one, once upon a time. About the only thing that could be accomplished with the apparatus was replacing the bearings,
for we had no way of running the motor. (Photos from around 2009)

Wang Laboratories comes to mind in how they excelled in finding creative uses for old and new technologies.

It seems there are only so many ways magnet wire can be wound around a nail.
But methods of "Motor Control" still have a wide open frontier out there.

John