Not to use as a UPS, but just because of the name and idea of having it was on my desk spinning at 50000rpm.

Also

"At last, a story with IT angular momentum."

Get your coat now...

I totally agree Paul - before i even read the article to find out what they were, "mag-lev flywheel" just sounded so cool that i wanted one

desperately trying to think of how to justify one so i can carry on playing on my ps3 in during a powercut

... you know how everyone's complaining that it's difficult to store windfarm electricity for when the wind stops? Couldn't we just use a reeeeeeaally big maglev flywheel UPS?

Make it in a dish-shape and we could use it as a radio-telescope too!

Will it become superconductive and hold a charge forever?

Will gravity above the core be reduced?

Will the core implode into subspace taking your server farm with it?

Such experimentation needs to be done!

http://www.pentadyne.com/site/our-products/faq.html

The Pentadyne website provides interesting information. The flywheel is carbon fibre contained in a 2-inch thick steel casing, so even catastrophic failure gives you just some black 'candy floss', with all energy fully contained. I'd still take care when moving one - I'd guess they take quite a while to run down after being switched off!

I once designed a (theoretical) car that stored enery in a huge flywheel. Was fine till you tried to turn a corner.....

Beacon Power has flywheel-based technology at power plant scale for frequency regulation and storage: http://www.beaconpower.com/products/EnergyStorageSystems/index.htm

And Volkswagen has done the flywheel thing in their Ecomatic system, which turned off the engine when stopped, and used flywheel stored energy to start it up again once you wanted to go.

I have seen and smelled the result of a failed mag-lev bearing on a large industrial gas compressor. The bearings were about 12 inches in diameter supporting the rotor of the gas compressor. It was quite the sight to see knowing that this huge chunk of steel was spinning as fast as it was levitated by magnetism. One day the entire facility was filled with an awful, acrid smell and a cloud of smoke that you just knew wasn't good for you. The circuitry that ran the mag-lev bearings failed during a test and the rotor settled into the magnets that formed the bearing. The resulting heat melted the magnets encasing resin creating the cloud and smell. Blech. Once they disassembled the compressor, the bearings destruction was quite complete and impressive.

Those FASTRAND drives were put in computer systems installed on a destroyer. They had significant problems turning the ship.

Wow. The company website is interesting. For some applications, I suppose these would be helpful, but given that they've only got 60 seconds of runtime

at half load under the most favorable conditions (some of the kit is rated as low as 15 seconds!) seems like a very, very spendy route to go.

Not so much as a deskside device, though. These pups need a full cabinet to

live in!

They had a few pages of self-written coverage (call it advertorial if you like) in the IEE News a few weeks back (well, strictly it's the IET News these days)?

You want serious energy storage? Try www.fhc.co.uk - response not quite as fast as a standard UPS, but runtime rather longer, and maximum output in a class of its own, as is the scenery.

This is not a problem, use two contra-rotating flywheels.

This was done with aircraft airscrews a long time ago.

My father, a marine engineer reckoned he was stood on the deck of a ship when across the bay another vessel had a major flywheel failure resulting in said flywheels exit, through the side of the ship. With a substantial hole in the hull the ship concerned apparently ended up stuck at its berth for some time whilst it was refloated and repairs effected.

I've seen the results of brake disk failures on rally cars and race cars which have resulted in the disc braking up and the bits being punched slap through thousands of quids worth of magnesium wheel rim. The cars concerned were then pitched off the road at relatively undiminished speed. Most impressive.

In the eighties a British Clubmans racer sustained serious leg injuries when the flywheel on his sportscar broke up, driving shrapnel through the tub. In some 750MC Clubmans cars you end up sat with your legs next to an inline engine right in the line of fire if such an event occurs....

I did my work experience in facility with a Univac 11/10 with a couple of big drum storage devices. whilst I never saw one of those fail, I did see the results of a head crash on a piddly wee PDP-8 installation during my college years. Quite a bit of energy in those old disk drives.... The computer room stank of scorched synthetic materials for weeks afterwards.

Military spec (on similar units) has all the power going into motor,

then the flywheel and out a different generator to produce power for the system.

This provides complete isolation from the grid.

If you turn your kit on or off, the grid does not get feedback.

Someone can tell alot about what you are doing from your power lines.

Put one of these between yourself and the outside world and that info goes down.

Beacon Power has been trying to sell the flywheel concept (or make a profit from it) for years:

<http://www.beaconpower.com/>

[quote]

Incorrect. It's gonna sound more like, "frrriiiiiiiiiiiiinnggggsssta, rrrrrrrrrraaaaaaammmmmmddddddaa, WOMP, WOMP, WOMP, WOMP, WOMP, Frista grrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnggggggggg, Wamma, wamma wamma, wammmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaa, rinstashshshshshshshshshshshsshshshshsh, Crack, shshshshshshsshshshshshshshshshshs, fffffffffffffffffffframmmmmmmm ammmmmmmmmmm ammmmmmmmmm ammmmmmmmmm ahmmmmmmmmmmm, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrr rr r. Clunk, click, tinggggggg."

[/quote]

So, basically its gonna sound like:

- That weird techno music

- One of those old Ruta 100 buses breaking nearby

- My former roommates' brakes

- Something unblendable falling into a Blendtec blender? (Will it blend? Oops, it didn't!)

These devices are sometimes called compulsators and are going to be used to power the aircraft catapults of new fangled electric carriers. Then they'll eventually be used to power electro-magnetic railguins, coil guns and other forms of leccy warfare. Perhaps that explains the "mil spec"?!?

Those who say that steering a car would be troublesome: not necessarily; it depends on how the axis of rotation is set up. Have it such that the planes or rotation are the same and there's no problem!

or maybe I've been playing with my powerball a bit too much.....

I have read some of the comments about Flywheel technology on the site, especially the piece about Pentadyne. As a former employee of theirs I know more about their system than most. Flywheels are safe, don't move when working and if they were to fail, the dont explode or any of the other mad mis-conceptions. They are contained within cylinders and are very safe. Older technology did have safety issues but not now.

Flywheels provide a vital part in providing power quality and energy savings on a grand scale, depending on the application involved. They make huge savings on disposal of chemicals and lead, they are cheaper to run and much cheaper when you look at maintenance. I work for a major competitor of Pentadyne and we have a Regen product on the market which has done over a million cycles - forget 35,000 working hours! If you really want to see proper flywheel technology at work visit www.vyconenergy.com and see there what flywheels can really do.