Full Speed Ahead                                                                 20th June 2007

This week Flybrid Systems are celebrating the first full speed runs of their flywheel spin test rig. The rig, which was designed and built by Flybrid Systems engineers, reached 65,000 RPM and ran in total for more than 2 hours.

The tests completed so far demonstrate what the company believe is the highest speed hermetic vacuum shaft seal in the world. Throughout all the testing so far absolutely no leakage of air into the flywheel chamber has been experienced. The seal is of a novel design and patent protection has been applied for.

Testing will continue over the coming weeks to build up information on the system life and to evaluate the effect on friction of several different bearing and seal arrangements.