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| Magnetic Bearings / Levitation | |
| Industrial/Aerospace/Military Specifications | |
| Designs by the inventor of the Slotless Wide Airgap Motor | |
Passive Magnetic Bearings |
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This arrangement does not violate Earnshaw's theorem of magnetic levitation because the brass tube has one point of contact. |
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Dielectric Magnetic Levitation |
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It was proved in 1842 that it is impossible to stably levitate any static array of magnets by any arrangement of fixed magnets and gravity. However, the addition of diamagnetic materials makes such levitation possible. The July 22 Nature paper, Magnetic Levitation at your fingertips, describes two configurations where diamagnetic materials are used to stabilize the levitation of a magnet in the field of a fixed lifting magnet. A pyrolytic graphite disk is levitated over an array of neodymium magnets. |
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| Here, the neodymium magnet is levitated between two bismuth cylinders. There are many possible variations of this basic arrangement. |  |
Rotation Stabilized Magnetic Levitation |
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| The levitated object is a rotating top above a permanent magnet platform. This does not violate Earnshaw's theorem due to rotation. |  |
Servo Stabilized Magnetic Levitation |
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| This active magnetic levitator/bearing is commercially available. They are frequently found levitatiing spheres or audio speakers. |  |
| This is an industrial grade active magnetic bearing. The electronic controls can be quite sophisticated. These devices can be found in large rotating electromagnetic machines, such as an ultra-centrifuge. |  |
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