Three-stage magnetic axle — hub-in-casing outrunner (Rev D)

One axle at Rev D scale. The central spine is a closed thin-walled shell between the two steering arcs — the arcs are its side walls, a spiked prow closes the front so a frontal impact glances off to the sides, a flat cap closes the back, and top and bottom are capped. Inside, two bulkheads split it three ways: . Two power bridges per wheel, one high and one low, run from the inverters in the keel out through the fuel and the spine wall to the steering arc; each carries a full feed, so either one alone can drive the wheel. At the arc they end in copper conductor rails set into the rail face, and the steering plate picks the power up with collector shoes as it slides, then passes it through the volcano and the hollow ball into the casing. Each wheel's volcano joint rides on an amber plate that slides along its arc to steer; at full lock the plate butts the stopper at the arc's end — that travel sets the arc's length, and so the spine. The suspension works in three stages, all anchored at the volcano ball joint. Stage 1: the motor shaft floats within the fixed casing on magnets, fore-aft and up-down (±) — the casing and its ball joint stay put. This is also the wheel's fore-aft give: it slides back to soak up a hit without turning. Stage 2: the whole casing swings up and down on the ball joint. The ball is keyed, so it can't turn the casing fore-aft (that would steer the wheel every time it braked or hit something) or roll it about its own axis (that roll is how the motor's torque reaches the car). Stage 3: each magnetic-rail plate is hinged right above the ball joint and free on the wheel side, so it tilts with the casing instead of sliding square to it. As the casing pivots toward a plate the gap closes to the float distance (about ); from there the bump flows into Stage 3 — the plate swings open exactly as fast as the casing advances, so it can never clip, and the swing winds the torsion bar. Each plate is split into two equal halves, and its hinge pin is the torsion bar. The bar sits in a hinge frame, not on arms. At each end of the arc the stopper carries straight on, at its own angle, as a pillar from the spine wall out to the hinge line. A solid deck sits on top of the pillars (the bottom deck under them), level with the pin: it carries the bar in bearing lugs along the hinge line, splines it at its exact middle and holds its end journals right over the pillars, so spine, pillars and decks make one closed frame round the joint. Between each deck and the skin is a bay for the gravity plating's power electronics: high-voltage converters, voltage regulators and controllers. The plating works like capacitor plates, drawing very little current at very high voltage, so these units sit right next to the plates they feed and reach them through insulated ceramic feedthroughs, keeping the high-voltage runs only a few centimetres long. Each half's outer knuckle (gold) is splined to its own end of the bar, and the inner knuckle turns free — so each half winds its own half of the bar directly, with no levers or links, and nothing stands above the plates. The blades along each half fan out so you can watch the bar wind up. Because the hinge sits right over the ball, the plate swings nearly as far as the casing once the gap closes: about 11° at full bump, more than twice what it managed when it was hinged at the spine wall. So the bar winds further and can be slimmer for the same spring. Push the Stage 2 pad or the rebound / bump slider past the float distance to watch the hand-off. Wheel travel at the wheel centre is the same up and down: Stage 2 swings the casing up to 12°, which moves the wheel (the first free, the rest carried by Stage 3), and Stage 1 adds ± on top — about each way, in all. The motor is oversized, so the hub shrank: drum , casing across. The casing is keyed and never turns, so it doesn't have to be round. From the ball to the tyre it is a chamfered square, an octagon with long flat top, bottom, front and back and short 45° corners. Its top and bottom are the float faces under the Stage 3 plates, its front and back give the Stage 1 magnets a flat face fore-aft too, the box section is stiffer than a round tube of the same height, and the corner pockets carry the two power feeds and the coolant out to the motor. Just before the tyre it eases back to round (), because the wheel spins around it on its magnet cushion. The axle follows GRIP proportions: the body is about three tyre-widths across, each tyre is twice as tall as it is wide, and the tyres sit tucked against the body. The chassis is symmetric top and bottom because the car drives either way up — all of Stage 3 sits inside it, both skins carry hexagonal gravity plating, and its sides taper toward front and back and lean in toward both skins, so the tucked-in tyre can still steer and bump. Wheel × , rubber , body across and tall, of floor clearance either way up. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom.