Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Will Fuel Powered Engines Replace Batteries?

Amazingly as this article shows we may see small engines powered by more traditional fuels powering our technology in the near future. And it's technology like this that will be the future of innovation and job growth in the future.



Lets just hope that they don't sell this patent to manufactures out side the US. Far to often our inventions and ideas are sold only to be developed in foreign countries.



Few know that things like the VCR were developed here in the states and the patents then sold to foreign manufactures who made the lions share of the long term profits and benefited most from the job growth created.



Lets start our renewal of America's technology leadership by keeping our patents owned by American firms and only licensed to foreign firms. That has been the strength of countries like Japan and China. What they develop they keep and what other others develop they buy or copy.


SMALLEST PETROL ENGINE

SCIENTISTS have built the smallest petrol engine, tiny enough to power a WATCH. The mini-motor, which runs for two years on a single squirt of lighter fuel, is set to revolutionize world technology. It produces 700 times more energy than a conventional battery despite being less than a centimeter long not even half an inch. It could be used to operate laptops and mobile phones for months doing away with the need for recharging. Experts believe it could be phasing out batteries in such items within just six years. The engine, minute enough to be balanced on a fingertip, has been produced by engineers at the University of Birmingham. Dr Kyle Jiang, lead investigator from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, said: “We are looking at an industrial revolution happening in peoples’ pockets. “The breakthrough is an enormous step forward. “Devices which need re- charging or new batteries are a problem but in six years will be a thing of the past.” Other applications for the engine could include medical and military uses, such as running heart pacemakers or mini reconnaissance robots. At present, charging an ordinary battery to deliver one unit of energy involves putting 2,000 units into it. The little engine, because energy is produced locally, is far more effective. One of the main problems faced by engineers who have tried to produce micro motors in the past has been the levels of heat produced. The engines got so hot they burned themselves out and could not be re-used. The Birmingham team overcame this by using heat-resistant materials such as ceramic and silicon carbide. Professor Graham Davies, head of the university’s engineering school, said: “We’ve brought together all the engineering disciplines, materials, chemical engineering, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering. “What better place to have the second industrial revolution in nano-technology than where the first took place, in the heart of the West Midlands.”
Read more at maximumtorque.blogspot.com