A Team of 50 Engineers Spent 6 Months Making a Fidget Spinner

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rgMekanic

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Mitsubishi Precision Co Ltd. designed and built a fidget spinner based on MinebeaMitsumi Inc.'s ball bearings to break the Guinness world record for "Longest duration spinning a fidget spinner on one finger." The team of 50 people spent 6 months creating and perfecting the design, with a heavy brass outer ring, and a lightweight aluminum center section, which spun for 24 min 46.34 sec.

You thought it was over didn't you? You thought the whole fidget spinner thing was something you wouldn't have to hear about again. HA! The article does state that you can buy one of these rotating masterpieces from the Japan Handspinner Club for $450. NMB makes some seriously high quality bearings, couple that with the lack of battery and this one has almost no chance of exploding.

"By incorporating technologies used for space satellites, we were able to realise smoothness and overwhelming rotation time that we’ve never seen before. We also applied bearing manufacturing technologies used for aircraft as well as wheels and rings. We use materials with the highest strength among aluminum alloys and highest quallity brass so that wheels and rings are thoroughly thinner and lighter than conventional ones," - Shigeru None.
 
This is basically the same as that video of some aerospace engineers making the perfect spinning top, the point is to show off their engineering prowess.
 
I'm about 20 years removed from being a machinist. You should google the specs on Timken bearings. Some of the specs can get interesting, especially with the maximum RPMs. I always got a chuckle whenever I reviewed the receipt from the bearing supplier, and the explicit disclaimer that it could not be used in missiles and nuclear reactor systems. Nope, just food processing equipment.
 
ZLoth said:
I'm about 20 years removed from being a machinist. You should google the specs on Timken bearings. Some of the specs can get interesting, especially with the maximum RPMs. I always got a chuckle whenever I reviewed the receipt from the bearing supplier, and the explicit disclaimer that it could not be used in missiles and nuclear reactor systems. Nope, just food processing equipment.
Click to expand...

But what if my food processor is located inside a nuclear reactor?
 
want to buy one for son but at $450 I'll pass. 20+ minutes will only find use so many times before it's just shelved :(

I wonder what the wear down ratio is for a piece like this? I would assume due to the massive precision required and the attention to dust proofing the batch used, that it wouldn't take long to start degrading performance. Regardless, you might still be hitting 18 minutes 5 years from now, which wouldn't be anything to scoff at.
 
I've got 7 minutes out of my spinner (on desk). 24 minutes is insane. So is the price. Mine was $35, this one is $450. No way Jose. I was interested in spinners...........for about a minute. Now I take mine out every once in a blue moon and fiddle with it.
 
Misogynist. Did you see the "nerdy girls" getting smoked by those guys? Couldn't be that they are simply better at that...not at all.
 
Team of 50 people.......you can't even find these at Walmart anymore unless the Toy dept. still has them we even carried the replacement bearings from them at one time.
 
I find this ironic since Mitsubishi was known for crankwalk problems. Maybe this was a team building exercise to figure out bearings.
 
You are not having fun with your kids until you tell them to follow you to the garage with that fidget spinner.
Then tell them "Ok, hold it like that"; then you hit it is 100 PSI of compressed air from the air gun.
It takes off sounding like a turbo spooling up and they quickly get scared and start whining. It is hysterical! :D
 
shut_up_and_take_my_money-t2.jpg
 
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