Why This 17-Year Old's Electric Motor Is Important

Do you think electric motor innovations like these will make a big difference for the future of EVs and renewables? Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals/undecided - Enter promo code UNDECIDED for 83% off and 3 extra months for FREE! CORRECTIONS: I've trimmed a couple of short sections from the video that were creating confusion. I didn't mean to imply that AC motors use magnets, but the wording during some moments made it sound like I was. Magnetless motors are not a new thing, but optimizing their design for high efficiency, high torque, without rare earths opens the door for more use cases. If you liked this video, check out How Can A Wind Turbine Be Motionless? https://youtu.be/OkRqVBpO2BQ?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7UWp64ZlOKUPNXePMTdU4d

The issue of using rare earth elements for magnets is very polarizing.

Great episode.

A few corrections (electrical engineer here): An induction motor does not "switch" the stator polarity. Because it's being fed with AC, it's built so that a rotating magnetic field is generated. The rotor is just a bunch of short-circuited coils. The rotating magnetic field induces a voltage in the rotor, creating another magnetic field that wants to align itself with the stator's rotating field. Suppose the two ever align (in case the rotor is spinning at the same speed as the rotating field). In that case, the rotating field will appear stationary to the rotor (like two cars going down a freeway at the same speed, they're moving in relation to the ground, but not in relation to themselves). The important part is that the stator's field can only spin as fast as the rotor's field. The difference between the speeds is called the slip ratio and is always larger than one for induction motors. A synchronous motor works oppositely: the rotor spins as fast as the stator's field. Because they're rotating at the same speed, there's no induced voltage, so the rotor needs either a permanent magnet or an electromagnet to generate its magnetic field. The slip ratio for a synchronous motor is always one. A) Induction (asynchronous) motors: no magnets on the rotor. B) Synchronous motors: rotor needs magnets. In both cases, there's no "switching" like in DC motors. The saliency ratio is the ratio between the magnetic reluctances when the rotor poles are aligned with the stator poles and when it's aligned with the gaps. This determines the torque curve. Pretty good explanation of how SynRMs work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvw6k4ppUZU&ab_channel=Lesics

Fascinating that you fell for this one too. Magnet free motors existed from the beginning. I have learned about them at standard course at the university 40 years ago. How can you even imagine that a 17 years old overtakes thousands of engineers working for 100 years? How does it even sounds probable to you? It is a clear PR stunt.

Hello Matt. The German company Mahle presented a newly developed magnetless electric motor in May 2021. With an efficiency of over 95%. But I can only express my respect for the young man for his baby, there is so much heart and soul in it.

I'd like to point out two major corrections: 1 AC induction motors use NO permanent magnets The magnetic field is "induced" in the conductive squirrel cage not generated by permanent magnets at all. (FYI it's called a squirrel cage because the rotors typically made of a cylindrical arrangement of copper or aluminum bars similar to a hamster wheel (why it's called a squirrel cage not a hamster wheel I'm not sure)) 2 synchronous reluctance motors are already a excellent alternative to induction motors in fact Tesla already uses a hybrid synchronous reluctance/permanent magnet motor in its cars (specifically because of its high torque high efficiency and reducing the need for expensive magnets)(reluctance motors are only now getting good because of The reduced cost of switching electronics required whereas induction motors require no extra controller to work on AC power, but the premise has been around for a long time and is relatively well developed)) edit: Thanks for replying and updating accordingly! I completely agree reluctance motors are awesome and should be used more. I just wanted to call attention to the fact that the vast majority of motors (induction motors) have no permanent magnets (and no rare earths)(and efficiencies usually >80%) and that the primary benefit of reluctance motors is (marginally) increased efficiency with little if any torque/performance reduction (rarely is startup torque the primary design factor anyway) but a larger upfront cost (that should trend down as adaption increases)

Hello, sorry if this is the 200th squirrel cage comment. A large, industrial, three phase motor is named a squirrel cage because of the rotor. It is often high-silicon steel slats filled in with cast aluminum for structure. When you look at the rotor on a workbench, it resembles a hamster wheel or cage fan, ergo squirrel cage. Easy way for us cavemen types to differentiate between motors. Great videos, thank you

Matt, when I was taught about induction motors the diagram we were shown for the rotor was two rings at either end axially connected by bars spaced around the rotor. These bars were the current carrying conductors in which the electromotive force would be generated. The rings were what completed the circuit for the necessary current to flow. To me it looks more like an elongated hamster wheel. But I guess squirrel cage sounded better.

Most industrial AC motors, both single-phase and 3-phase, do not use permanent magnets, they use an induced magnetic field in the rotor (the rotating part) from the stator (non-rotating part) to induce rotation. This principle can also be used in generators, though they typically require at least some residual magnetism to be able to start the magnetic interaction. Automotive alternators use no permanent magnets, though they do use a pair of rings (rather than a segmented commutator) with brushes to make contact to the rotor.

My father was with a French design team in the late 1960s. They used variable reluctance in a very efficient air compressor which used a single piston (no crank) powered by variable reluctance. No permanent magnets, and no commutator brushes. Dead simple! One version of it emerged as a Black and Decker air compressor. There was also made a low vibration flat twin piston version which was a bit like a free piston engine.

One thing I remember learning very early in automation is how brushed dc motors suck at both power output and efficiency, I would not regard 70% efficiency and damage over time as a good thing. I also remember reading a paper like a year ago about a 96-97% efficient brushless dc motor, don't remember all the details tho...

Ive installed some of those turntide motors, the noise that they produce is insane. Causing the vibrations to echo through an entire building. Luckily there is special mounting to reduce the awful noise they make, would have been nice if they came standard with the motors though.

In 1889, Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky invented the wound rotor induction motor. Which looked like a squirrel cage and the name stuck. Tesla invented it pretty close to the same time independently and gets most of the credit because he already had the patents, but most physicists agree that Dobrovolsky got in the first punch.

We can already use AC motors in cars today which eliminates rare earth metals today. The efficiency loss of using a VFD isn't really far off from high performance DC motor efficiency due to the control circuitry. Additionally, without seeing much in the way of how he designed the motor it's hard to say he did anything new, people tend to not fully understand what a new patent requires when it comes to something as common as electric motors.

I've subscribed to your channel not only for the insight into some really wildly optimistic and totally doable ways to help save us from ourselves, but for the ongoing focus on people and companies earnestly working and caring about continuing to see optimistic futures. There are SO many people seeing where we can go, and we need to believe these optimistic possibilities as much as the dystopic. We're not done yet! Thank you SO MUCH for this channel and the research you do. I'm a new fan. 🙏

During the summer and fall of 2022 I installed 30 turntide smart motors. The installation is relatively simple. The motors are heavier than those they replace the programming is straight forward the controllers are nice the app interface is easy to navigate for a technician and the tech support is direct and effective at resolving any nonworking components. The motors are significantly louder this is really the only drawback I noticed. Though there is some inconsistency in the noise levels. Not sure if this is manufacturing or installation. Clients that requested the motors were pleased.

Reluctance motors and induction motors have already been optimized for lots of use cases. It’s hard to see that more tinkering will vastly change the torque per volume, but I admire the kid for taking on this work and wish him all the best. Eliminating permanent magnets from automotive motors is a worthy goal.

Almost 40 years ago, I spent a year on a science project to find a way to make a hydrogen engine work, while I cracked it, I also cracked the block of the engine). I continued my hobby of alternative fuels to this day. My only regret after all these years is that I didn't pursue this as a career. I hope that Robert is supported to continue his passion. I also hope he nails the ISEF and suggest we go out of our way to support our future through people like Robert.

synchronous motors has the same effect on the power grid as capacitors . if you have a factory with a lot of motors you can use sync motors as fans to bring the phase shift in line