FWIW, Free Energy Times Interviews Sean McCarthy, of STEORN:
http://www.freeenergytimes.com/?p=46 Excerpts: Here is a transcript of the email exchange which took place; Sean McCarthy’s responses were sent to me on September 22, 2009. ... FET: In a statement made earlier this year you stated that before 2009, “Implementing Orbo in a reliable and consistent manner had remained a challenge for the organization” but that this year you had “had resolved the key technical problems related to the implementation of Orbo”. Can you say anything regarding the technical breakthroughs you have made? SM: One of the key problems that we have always faced in implementing Orbo are bearings. The reason is that a typical Orbo interaction involves very strong radial forces that change direction in very small angular displacements. Hence an Orbo system built using traditional bearings is like driving you car at high speed over speed bumps – you can do it, but after a small distance you[r] car will simply break down. The key technical advance that we have made with respect to implementation is a move away from the use of traditional bearing technologies to the use of our own passive magnetic bearing technology, ZeroF. ****** Personal, and very speculative comments follow: I would think that dealing with "strong radial forces" could be significantly ameliorated by placing several rotor stator configurations in the same central axis but with each configuration positioned at a slightly different angle - to help counter balance the back-and-forth radial forces. With the right number of carefully positioned configurations in place I would think it possible to balance/average out the radial core forces. The biggest problem might be in trying to keep the rotor magnets from literally ripping out of the rotor assembly at high RPMs due to a combination of centripetal and attractive magnetic forces. High tinsel strength materials would likely be called for. Fortunately, I gather such exotic materials don't tend to possess magnetic properties. Engineering high strength composite materials could be a huge engineering problem, at least initially, especially if the magnet configurations are set primarily in attractive mode between the rotor and stator assemblies. I gather the rotor/stator magnet combinations in the alleged ORBO design occasionally tend to come very close to each other at specific times in the "cycle". Neodymium magnets are extremely powerful critters, as many in this forum have occasionally attested to. I can personally attest to having received several bloody fingers by mishandling three quarter inch neodymium magnet "cubes". Ouch! Anything larger than that can quickly become a serious health hazard. OTOH, if the rotor/stator configurations are in repulsive mode, you then have to deal with another insidious problem - the potential demagnetizing of the neodymium magnets. While I don't understand the specific physics involved it's my understanding that many kinds magnets, particularly if repeatedly forced together, while in repulsive, mode will eventually demagnetize. On the remote chance that Steorn succeeds in this seemingly dubious adventure there is likely to be a huge rush in rare earth mining stocks, as has already been speculated here. China is well positioned to exploit their strategic monopoly (ownership) on just about every single rare-earth mining operation currently in operation. Many countries outside of China (including the United States) may suffer dearly for our short sightedness... "Yes, while the energy is free, the Neodymium magnets aren't". ...assuming there actually IS something valid to the ORBO technology saga. Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
