Magnetic levitation trains, the future is coming!

Trains that use magnetic levitation technology are no longer seen only in science fiction movies. In China and Japan, research has been carried out for several years on how magnetic levitation can be used to transport people. Prototypes have already been developed in the two countries, which reach impressive speeds of up to 600 km / h! This could significantly reduce journey times.

The Chinese model is called Maglev from the English name of magnetic levitation, and should go into production in 2021. While the Japanese variant, Chuo Shinkansen, is scheduled for 2027 with a national road across the whole country. Levitation, and precisely in this case, magnetic levitation, which underlies the two projects, is not used here for the first time. In California, for example, the hoverboard was developed in 2014. A skateboard that can also levitate thanks to magnetic technology.

How does magnetic levitation work?

Let's start at the beginning. In simple terms, magnetic levitation means that two bodies repel each other without any contact and therefore float. However, in his Earnshaw theorem of 1842, Samuel Earnshaw states that no stationary electrical or magnetic phenomenon can cause and maintain this levitation force. Levitation, on the other hand, does not use a static magnetic field, but a mobile field.

The so-called Levitron is a classic example to explain this phenomenon. The American inventor Roy Harringan received the patent for his invention of the Levitron in 1983. It is practically a combination of a base and a magnetic gyroscope which repel each other, therefore, inter alia, the speed of rotation of the gyroscope is decisive for the fact that it is not only a brief moment of levitation, but a stable levitation force.

Of course, this is only a simplified explanation because it is a much more complex subject. To develop magnetic levitation trains, many other factors must be taken into account, some of which have yet to be studied and tested. This is why these science-fiction modes of transport are not yet on the market. However, the fact is that we are closer than we think.

If you are interested in this subject or have questions about magnetic products and their applications, you can contact our specialist staff at any time without obligation.

Wireless energy transfer through magnetic fields.

If the inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was always with us, he would surely be very satisfied, since he thought of transmitting energy wirelessly almost a century ago. In fact, his idea was not so impossible to implement, since energy can now be transmitted over the wire using magnetic fields, even over long distances.

The foundations of this technology were already known at the time of Tesla. His colleague, the British Michael Faraday, recognized the so-called induction principle in 1831. The electric current crosses a conductor and therefore forms a magnetic field. If there is a second conductor near this first conductor, a current flow is also activated here thanks to the magnetic field. Therefore, the magnetic field transfers energy without cables or any other type of physical connection between the two conductors.

Of course, it didn't stop there. Electronic device manufacturers in particular were very interested in this technology. In 2010, some major brands joined forces to develop a uniform standard in this regard. They succeeded and it did not stop there, researchers in the United States have refined this technology and developed so-called “super probes”, which should allow energy to be transmitted over a slightly greater distance. . These super probes focus the magnetic fields and allow greater energy transfer.

What can wireless energy transfer through magnetic fields be used for?

In other words, to charge a wide variety of electronic devices. The electric toothbrush, for example, already charges this way, even small devices like smartphones, for example, charge wirelessly and not only. In Sweden, electronic cars have also been wirelessly recharged remotely since 2018. All of this is based on the electromagnetic principle developed almost a century ago, which has certainly not yet reached its limits.

If you want to know more about the role of magnetic fields in our everyday devices or if you want to know where they can be used and what advantages they offer. You can get more information on our blog or contact our team of experts. We are happy to help you and of course also to inform you about all the magnetic products available in our store.

Manufacturing of external magnetic hard drives?

External hard drives are an integral part of our lives for many of us, especially those who work with computers. They are so common that we don't even think about the actual mechanism and their structure. Therefore, we often do not even know that the technology would not work without the help of these magnetic external hard drives.

Earlier in our blog, we already talked about magnetic data recording and magnetic storage but only on hard drives. Now we want to take a closer look at the structure of the little magnetic wonder that helps us to reliably store and classify all of our data.

Components of an external magnetic hard drive?

As the English name Hard Disk already suggests, external hard disks are made up of various hard disks, mainly ceramic, metal or glass. These discs rotate counterclockwise at several thousand revolutions per second to record the bits of the computer (series of numbers between 0 and 1 in a language called binary).

This is when the magnets come into play. These bits are stored in an incredibly thin magnetic layer, which in turn is covered with a protective layer. All this can only be done by electromagnets which pass through the so-called read and write heads.

So there’s a lot going on with the hard drive and, as we know, it’s quite a small device. These are the smallest parts that work together, which is why it is important that nothing comes into contact with these particles because they are very sensitive.

Besides magnetic external hard drives, there are also electronic hard drives, often abbreviated as SSD (Solid State Drive), which are more expensive, but also much more robust and also work faster.

If you want more information on the function of magnets in electronic devices or if you want to know everything about the different magnetic products on sale in our online store, you can contact our specialized staff at any time.

Development of magnetic storage space.

We have often stressed that magnets are essential, especially in the field of technology because they are used in the development of different functions.

Often we do not consider them as active, so we can not even be aware of their importance for the proper functioning of technological devices. We have already covered the use of magnets to record data and in today's article we would like to take a closer look at the latest developments in magnetic storage space. Specifically spintronics, which will probably be used more and more in the future for so-called quantum micro-devices.

Use of spintronics for magnetic data storage.

Researchers from international universities around the world have already dealt with the subject and made various developments to optimize the magnetic storage of data. A wide variety of solutions have already emerged, so that data can now also be stored on magnetic media using laser-activated heat, which is faster and allows the acquisition of large quantities of data.

This technology is called HAMR - Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording.

On the other hand, there is also the microwave magnetic data storage variant, the MAMR - Micro-assist-Magnetic Recording.

However, the researchers are not yet satisfied with it and have continued their research and developed a magnetic storage using spintronics based on tunnel contacts. The capacity of hard drives can be considerably increased and at the same time their power consumption is reduced. Which is of course a great advantage. Researchers call this technology a new generation of magnetic data storage, and therefore a technology that will be a pioneer in the future.

For more examples of the use of magnets in different technology sectors, don't hesitate to consult our blog. But not only in technology, magnets are used in a wide variety of fields, including medicine, food technology and the aerospace industry. If you would like more information on our magnetic products or have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact our specialist staff by telephone or e-mail.

Magnetic data recording on magnetic or SMR discs

As we already know, magnets also play an important role in computer technology. Especially when it comes to recording data, the use of magnets is not only essential, but it is constantly developing and improving. This can be the recording of your personal data on your PC at home, just like in businesses and other industries. For example, surveillance video recording is extremely important and beneficial if a large amount of data can be stored on a hard drive with little risk of loss.

Conventional hard drives, which you can also use at home to store photos and documents, of course also work with magnets, this is called PMR technology, which means perpendicular magnetic recording. Here we are working with parallel concentric magnetic tracks. There are spaces between these tracks and there is a magnetic head above the hard drive through which the data can be recorded. So far, so good. These hard drives are limited by the width of the magnetic head, which specifies the density of the magnetic tracks, and therefore also the storage space. If we need more capacity, we should use a larger hard drive or more of them. This is where SMR technology comes in.

How does magnetic data storage with SMR work?

SMR, what do these three letters mean anyway? The abbreviation comes from English and means Shingled Magnetic Recording. Translated into German, this would mean "magnetic layered recording". Shingled is therefore inspired by the logic of laying tiles, which are distributed in layers, which saves space. Very obvious, right? Regarding data recording, we can imagine that the magnetic tracks do not work side by side at intervals as described above, but rather overlap slightly. This means that a lot more data can be written to a hard drive of the same size as the data density increases.

Advantages of SMR technology

The greatest advantage of recording magnetic data with SMR technology is obvious. Much more data can be saved. Compared to a hard drive with PMR technology, the storage capacity increases by about 25%. The second advantage comes with this first point. More data can be saved, thereby improving performance, but the manufacturing costs remain relatively the same as, for example, a reorganization of the technology rather than a change in the parts used. If long recordings are to be made in one piece, as is the case with the surveillance videos mentioned above, hard drives with SMR technology are best suited.

If you have further questions on magnetic recording or if you want to know our magnetic products without obligation, you can contact our specialized staff at any time. We would be delighted to help you.