Nearly everyone has ridden a Ferris wheel. Before getting on, many fear being thrown off. This happens because the Ferris wheel spins at a high linear speed, generating powerful centrifugal force.

High-speed motors work on the same principle. Compared with ordinary motors, their defining feature is ultra-high rotation speed, which creates an intense outward centrifugal force. You can watch videos of high-speed motor rotors bursting apart at extreme speeds, leaving complete wreckage — a vivid demonstration of the immense power brought by high rotation.

Thanks to their outstanding high-speed performance, high-speed motors are widely applied in heavy industry, aerospace, national defense and military fields, standing as cutting-edge core technology.

Some may wonder: Can a tiny motor rotating tens of thousands of revolutions per minute be classified as a high-speed motor? Think of the Ferris wheel again: people sitting near its center barely feel any outward throwing force. Therefore, true high-speed motors require both high rotational speed and large physical dimensions.

In the industry, a motor is defined as a high-speed one by the linear speed of its rotor, namely the peripheral speed of the rotating component. The linear speed of standard high-speed motors exceeds 50 meters per second, and the maximum can surpass 300 meters per second, close to the speed of sound. Since centrifugal force is proportional to the square of linear speed, classifying motors by linear speed can accurately reflect the technical difficulty of manufacturing high-speed motors.

High-speed hair dryers dry hair rapidly with high efficiency, and their core component is a high-speed motor running at over 100,000 revolutions per minute. It features compact size and strong wind output, fully embodying the advantages of high-speed motors: small volume and powerful performance.

Dental equipment also adopts high-speed motors to reduce patients’ pain. The electric dental handpiece is equipped with a high-speed motor rotating above 40,000 rpm, and its output speed can reach 200,000 rpm after passing through speed-increasing gears.

These are common high-speed motors visible in daily life. In fact, most high-speed motors serve as pivotal industrial core equipment and symbols of a country’s comprehensive scientific and technological strength. They are extensively used in gas turbines, turbo molecular pumps, high-speed grinding machines, evaporative cycle refrigeration, energy storage flywheels, fuel cells, high-speed blowers, high-speed air compressors, aviation and shipborne power supply systems, hybrid vehicles and low-altitude aircraft.

A high-speed motor driven turbo molecular pump can efficiently create vacuum environments and separate air to obtain high-purity gas, serving various industrial scenarios.

Most people know batteries can store energy, yet few know high-speed motors can also realize energy storage. When paired with large flywheels, the high-speed motor operates as an electric motor to convert electric energy into mechanical energy and store it in flywheels. When instant high power output is needed, the flywheel drives the motor to rotate reversely to generate electricity and supply power externally. This flywheel energy storage system can release tremendous instantaneous power.

Turbocharged vehicles deliver strong power and excellent overtaking performance, relying on electronic turbochargers driven by high-speed motors with a rotational speed of up to 100,000 rpm, which effectively eliminates turbo lag and boosts torque output.

Micro gas turbines are highly efficient compact power devices. A unit roughly the length of a pencil can output 68 horsepower (50 kilowatts). Installed on vehicles, it can cut engine volume by 95%. High-speed generators are the core parts of micro gas turbines, converting combustion kinetic energy into high-power electric energy.

In sewage treatment, high-speed motor driven aeration blowers operate at tens of thousands of revolutions per minute with a power of hundreds of kilowatts to complete sewage aeration and purification. Most of them adopt magnetic levitation bearings, which keep rotating parts suspended in the air without friction, ensuring long service life, high energy efficiency and stable operation.

When high-speed blowers are adjusted for higher air pressure and lower flow rate, they become high-speed air compressors, which are universal equipment widely used in factories, also mainly driven by magnetic levitation high-speed motors.

New energy vehicle drive motors are currently a hot research direction. The maximum rotational speed of some passenger car drive motors has reached 30,000 rpm, and higher-speed automotive motors are still under development.

With the continuous improvement of power density of power batteries, electric aircraft are gradually becoming a reality, which creates a growing demand for high-speed aircraft motors rated at 35,000 rpm. Hybrid electric aircraft are also in rapid development, requiring high-power high-speed motors.

It is obvious that high-speed motors are core strategic components across multiple industries with broad untapped application prospects.

Under ultra-high operating speeds, conventional structural designs cannot withstand enormous centrifugal force. Hence manufacturers adopt high-strength special structural designs and slim down rotor structures. However, slender rotors are prone to bending deformation during high-speed rotation, which will cause irreversible damage and directly scrap the motor.

It is impractical to simply make rotors short and thick, because high-speed motors need high power output, which inevitably requires longer rotor structures. This forms an intractable technical conflict among power output, structural strength and anti-bending performance, making the design and manufacturing of high-speed motors extremely challenging. Their R&D and production require massive capital investment, professional manpower and advanced precision equipment, and success is never guaranteed even with sufficient resources.

Another major challenge is heat dissipation. High-speed motors are compact in size but generate severe internal power loss and excessive heat during operation. Without professional customized cooling systems, overheating will lead to performance decline and shortened service life. Efficient cooling technology is essential for the long-term stable operation of high-power high-speed motors.

After years of continuous research and exploration, China has built a solid technical foundation in the field of high-speed motors, with booming industrialization momentum and promising long-term development prospects.