this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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99
A Plastic Motor Just Defied a Century of Engineering Assumptions (scitechdaily.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Delta_V@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

...The discovery expands how motors and actuation systems can be designed. Most electromagnetic motors today depend on magnets and copper coils. This new approach can create motion without magnets or rare earth metals, which could be valuable in a world where material resources are limited.

The design could also be lighter and simpler. Since the rotating component can be made from resin instead of metal, devices may become lighter and faster to respond. That could help in robotics, compact machines, and precision systems.

Because the motor does not depend on magnetic fields, it may also work well in places where magnetic noise causes problems, including medical equipment and data storage devices...

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[โ€“] Bad_Engineering@fedia.io 36 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

All these comments feel very nitpicky. Its a one of a kind, experimental motor. Built to test the properties of a new and a not well understood phenomenon. The fact that the motor moves at all is pretty amazing. We don't know what the technology could grow into in the future, we don't know what the applications could be. Simply because we don't actually know what all this sort of device is capable of with further study and refinement. The tungsten filament lightbuld generated far more heat than light for over a hundred years before we managed to come up with the led, which in its infancy also barely produced light.

[โ€“] mortalic@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

I always love asking those people how their version is better. How did your experiment work out?