Electric car

[V6Matty]

What was the program Alistair, might be worth a watch?

 

[LostKiwi]

It was called Revolution:Car. It went through the history of the motor vehicle and tagged on a bit at the end detailing graphene usage for electric vehicles.
Pretty amazing stuff graphene.

 

[Craiglxviii]

It was called Revolution:Car. It went through the history of the motor vehicle and tagged on a bit at the end detailing graphene usage for electric vehicles.
Pretty amazing stuff graphene.

I’ve been involved with some of the Advanced Propulsion Technology stuff of late. There’s some really interesting things happening; one is in motor windings. These are currently in copper of circular cross section, testing has shown that rectangular section aluminium has significantly reduced eddy current loss and far better thermal performance than copper. Now, it’s also far cheaper than copper, and it’s been discovered that thick (2-3mm) material can be used with good performance results. So instead of using very costly copper via a slow and expensive drawing process, all one needs to do is take a coil of 2mm thick surface-treated alloy and slit it 4-5mm wide, and as long as the surface treatment has insulating properties (sprayed on in the coil winding phase) one has ready-made much higher performance windings at a fraction of the price.

 

[davemercedes]

It's good to hear that someone had a worthwhile Eureka moment! If the same devoted research into battery storage etc and thinking the unthinkable can be carried out we might actually end up with a genuine alternative to the IC engine. I must say that it's funny how just twenty-odd years ago the whole idea of a "proper" modern electric car was virtually dismissed as impossible... But what you describe was presumably sitting there, waiting to be found while nobody carried out serious research to find it!

Just think: if we had been on a war-time basis with virtually no fuel oil available, the boffins would have been working all hours a day to find more efficient windings and increase battery storage (or find alternatives).

 

[bembo449]

only reason its happening now is because someone has found a way of getting stinking rich off the idea

 

[davemercedes]

You're only jealous (so am I) !!!

 

[bembo449]

id be more jealous of the person that invents a replacement for petrol that doesn't pollute Dave

 

[davemercedes]

It was called Revolution:Car. It went through the history of the motor vehicle and tagged on a bit at the end detailing graphene usage for electric vehicles.
Pretty amazing stuff graphene.

Are you sure of the program name?
- We have Virgin TV with squillions of channels and I did a search that came up with nothing.
- What channel was it?

 

[Craiglxviii]

It's good to hear that someone had a worthwhile Eureka moment! If the same devoted research into battery storage etc and thinking the unthinkable can be carried out we might actually end up with a genuine alternative to the IC engine. I must say that it's funny how just twenty-odd years ago the whole idea of a "proper" modern electric car was virtually dismissed as impossible... But what you describe was presumably sitting there, waiting to be found while nobody carried out serious research to find it!

Just think: if we had been on a war-time basis with virtually no fuel oil available, the boffins would have been working all hours a day to find more efficient windings and increase battery storage (or find alternatives).

The idea actually came from the world’s biggest aluminium manufacturer looking for ways get get into the free APT cash without spending any R&D money of their own

 

[LostKiwi]

Are you sure of the program name?
- We have Virgin TV with squillions of channels and I did a search that came up with nothing.
- What channel was it?

It was a BBC one. Should be on i-player

 

[V6Matty]

Found it, Revolutions : the ideas that changed the world: S1 e2 the car

 

[oigle]

I watched a very interesting program last night that discussed battery developments. Using graphene it's possible to produce a battery that's 60% more capacity than lithium, charges in 5 minutes and can be integrated into the structure of the vehicle.
The main ingredient is carbon so no major difficulty sourcing it and less environmental impact too.

Cost is likely to be the issue there.

 

[davemercedes]

It was a BBC one. Should be on i-player

Yuo, found it - thanks Alistair.

 

[Frontstep]

Aluminium windings are thicker and have a fire risk

 

[Craiglxviii]

Aluminium windings are thicker and have a fire risk

Not according to the APT guys I’m dealing with, not the way they are being designed now. They’re a step change in cost and performance over existing tech.

 

[Craiglxviii]

Cost is likely to be the issue there.

Iirc graphene production requires some of the most advanced lab tech on the planet. Some years away from much beyond experimental quantities.

 

[LostKiwi]

Iirc graphene production requires some of the most advanced lab tech on the planet. Some years away from much beyond experimental quantities.

It was discovered using sticky tape......
Also already in production in some fields.

 

[Craiglxviii]

It was discovered using sticky tape......
Also already in production in some fields.

It is- in millimetre-square conditions. It’s as I thought, there are about 20 ways to make it (including peeling sticky tape off the end of a pencil as you say!) but none lend themselves yet to square metre levels. Once we crack that though, all bets are off. It’s Star Trek’s “transparent aluminium” which can do all sorts of other crazy shiz, including levitation in a magnetic field.

 

[Blobcat]

It is- in millimetre-square conditions. It’s as I thought, there are about 20 ways to make it (including peeling sticky tape off the end of a pencil as you say!) but none lend themselves yet to square metre levels. Once we crack that though, all bets are off. It’s Star Trek’s “transparent aluminium” which can do all sorts of other crazy shiz, including levitation in a magnetic field.

Just need some Gold Pressed Latinum to pay for it...

 

[Frontstep]

You can keep up to date on graphene production here;

https://www.graphene-info.com/graphene-products

You do get the feeling from reading it that marketing rather than science is the driver.


I am not sure Federer would be duly bothered if I faced him with a graphene stuffed tennis racquet.