Magnatronic Hub Motor Patent

I have been following a company called US Highland for a long while now. They originated in Sweden and recently set up shop in Oklahoma. Some of the engineers are from Husqvarna and there are a lot of big names and experience on the board of directors.

Recently they announced a “Magnetronic” hub motor in development and patented under Millennial Research Corporation. There is some information available in the patent filing.

Can anyone distill this down to common speak? Highland says it’s a game changer. Can anyone explain how? What do you all think about the design?

I plan on writing something up on PlugBike.com about it and will link to this thread and the experts of Endless Sphere for credit.

Thanks in advance! I figure if I can't get an answer here I'll just have to wait and see the finished product

Here is the link to the patent…
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=5m7QAAAAEBAJ

Here is the press release from US Highland…

GLENPOOL, Okla., July 1, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — US Highland, Inc. (OTCBB:UHLN) a U.S. based designer and manufacturer of high performance, premium quality Motocross, Supermoto, Quad and Enduro motorcycles, announced today that the Company in conjunction with its Joint Venture partner, Millennial Research Corporations, has completed a new revolutionary hub motor (electric engine) based on its patented magnetronic technology. US Highland has the exclusive rights to utilize the engine and technology for powersports applications.
“We are very excited about the possibilities this electric motor technology adds to our company. This puts US Highland at the forefront of the green technology movement within the powersports industry. We have worked with our partner Millennial Research Corporation on the development of this engine for over two years. It is now finally ready for commercial applications, ” commented Mats Malmberg, President of US Highland, Inc.
Dennis Palmer, Founder of Millennial Research Corporation, added, “Our revolutionary magnetronic motor technology is broadly applicable across many industries and markets. This powerful magnetronic motor designed for US Highland will require as much as 70% less battery usage for the same run time and weigh as much as 40% less than the existing competition. This a real game changer for the use of electrical engines in power sports.”
About US Highland, Inc.
US Highland, Inc., is a US based designer and manufacturer of high performance, premium quality Motocross, Supermoto, Quad and Enduro motorcycles. The Company is also a leading development and engineering partner for leading OEM’s around the world. For additional information concerning US Highland Inc., visit http://www.ushighland.com.
About Millennial Research Corporation
Millennial Research Corporation is the developer and patent holder of the unparalleled and revolutionary patented magnetronic electric motor technology, which represents the first substantial change to the electric motor since the industrial revolution. Millennial Research Corporation has a full suite of additional patent applications now pending to further protect its IP and is pursuing patent protection worldwide. For additional information concerning Millennial Research Corporation, visit http://www.millennialresearchcorp.com
Forward-looking Statement:
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events of future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluation such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company’s SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Sadly. 3 of the top people of this company were recently killed in a plane crash, 1 mile from their destination.

Ironically, ran out of gasoline, trying to develop their e-motorcycle business.

Wind Sail Receptor, Inc. of Nevada appear to be going into production of their new design of wind generator shortly...

From their web site:

Wind Sail Receptor plans to start hiring in August, 2010.
Positions: 2 staff and 28 workers
Job Description: Making, stocking, and shipping windmill blades
We are currently accepting job applications.

Click to expand...

Point is, looks like they are going with the Magnetronic tech and their test results look pretty interesting, here:
http://www.windsailreceptor.com/TECHNOLOGY_INFO.html

tks
loCk

The basic layout appears to be a 'stacked' axial flux configuration - quite a nice motor topology to start with - in 3 or 4 phases. However, the claim to fame here seems to be the using the magnetization energy from each coil as it's turned off to energize the next coil to be turned off - hence the large number of phases, as this allows more variation of the duty cycle in this configuration. Very similar to a concept I came up with for a high-efficiency coil-gun a while back - the problem being that for best effect, you need to turn on each coil on and off very quickly, and rather than doing that by (a) hitting the coils with very high voltages to energize them and (b) de-energizing the coil by dumping the magnetization energy into a 'snubber' (i.e. diverting the current into a resistor), you use the properties of the coils themselves to dump the energy from each to the next in a kind of domino effect.

This scheme can save a fair bit of the magnetization energy which would otherwise be wasted in some scenarios - in this case case they seem to be undecided on an iron-cored or ironless stator - ironless stator coils have a very low magnetization energy to start with, which leaves me a little confused about what they're hoping to achieve by it in this configuration :? but in the case of iron cores it makes a lot more sense. The base configuration is essentially the same as the CSIRO halbach-axial motor but with a stack of stators/rotors rather than a single one.

This motor has a fairly small number of poles by comparison, so the combination just might work at similar efficiencies without running into the eddy current issues inherent to high pole-count motors at high speeds, in which case there might be substantial magnetization energy involved with the higher required turn count... a motor like this would have to be geared down or chain driven, as it would be quite a high rpm device. The CSIRO motor efficiency was pushing past the mid-90s, but was a rather tame 1.8kW compared to the tens (at least) of kW I expect this is hoping to achieve, being a motorsport innovation. I'm thinking they're trying to spread the high-efficiency operating point across a wider speed range by using coils with more windings (for more low end torque), which would also justify the use of magnetization-energy recovery.

As a side note, as patents go, this appears (on the surface at least) not to have much novelty to it (not as bad as many software patents, though ). There may be some novelty here, but I'm going to have to look more closely to spot it; some patents are intentionally like that though...

I've only skimmed the document, so if anyone has a better reading, feel free to correct me

I agree with everything that madact said. The axial flux, coreless design which uses energy needed to create the first magnetic field is used to create the next magnetic field as it collapses. I don't see how this is really going to provide a benefit, other than perhaps reducing the requirements of the controller slightly (since it doesn't have to create as much energy to create each field). The amount of energy stored in the magnetic field is very small so this effect will have very little influence if it does actually work. I also just skimmed over it because I really hate patents, from my understanding of how motors work and such, I am very skeptical that this idea will actually work, let alone provide a benefit if it does actually work.

As to the other topic, that Lock posted.

To give you some quick background, I have been designing generators for wind turbines for 3years now, and am very familiar with small (1-50kW) and MW sized turbines their efficiencies, advantages of different designs, blade design and everything to do with wind turbines.

I am highly skeptical of that WindSail proposition, for example slide 19 of 23 in their presentation.
http://www.windsailreceptor.com/uploads/WSR_PP_Pres.__Website__White.pdf

There is no way a turbine with a 15foot blade will extract 1MW of power (at wind speeds seen on earth), it defies the laws of physics. I could continue to rip the technical points of that presentation apart, but would be a waste of time.

Im still waiting for a product from both the Magnatronic and the Novatorque motor companies .. which one will win ??