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by Jeff Hopkins on 7/19/17 8:45 AM
University competition may help create new high-speed rail system
WARR Hyperloop Team's Pod in development.
Hyperloop
Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind the Tesla electric car and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., (better known as SpaceX) has yet another transportation idea: A high-speed train that could get you from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than 30 minutes.
It's called the Hyperloop, a closed tube with very low air pressure inside, allowing "pods" of people and cargo to travel close to the speed of sound while using very little energy.
If early results pan out, there's a good chance that Swagelok parts will be part of the project.
Hands-on work
Musk came up with a competition involving teams of university students to turn his idea into reality. A team of 30 students from the Technical University of Munich advanced to the finals. The team is sponsored by Swagelok, and is part of a larger organization called the Scientific Workgroup for Rocketry and Spaceflight, whose German initials are WARR. Their design includes a compressor to suck the air from in front of the pod and stream it out the back, resulting in zero air resistance for the pod.
You can watch the team at work in this five-minute video from Swagelok.
For the students, the Hyperloop competition gives them a chance to learn in a way that a regular academic course never could. Designing and assembling the pod takes them beyond theory by getting their hands on the components. They have to take care of details that would never be covered in a classroom lecture. They've learned that in the real world, there are some aspects of a project that never occur to you until you actually start building it.
For Mark Ast, Managing Director of Swagelok Munich, the competition means that this early work could end up having an effect on the transportation that people take every day. It brings together computer scientists, mechanical engineers and civil engineers from several countries.
It's called the Hyperloop, a closed tube with very low air pressure inside, allowing "pods" of people and cargo to travel close to the speed of sound while using very little energy.
Hyperloop Pod Competition II
In January 2017, the WARR Hyperloop team and 26 other teams from across the country and world participated in the first Hyperloop Pod Competition at the SpaceX Hyperloop track. The competition’s goal was to accelerate the development of functional prototypes and encourage innovation by challenging teams to design and build the best high-speed pod. Teams put their pods through a litany of tests, which was made possible through SpaceX's Hyperloop system. The competition was the first of its kind anywhere in the world.
Based on the high-quality submissions and overwhelming enthusiasm surrounding the first competition, SpaceX has moved forward with Hyperloop Pod Competition II, which will culminate in a second competition on August 25-27, 2017, at SpaceX’s Hyperloop track. Hyperloop Competition II focus on a single criterion: maximum speed. The WARR Hyperloop team and other new and returning student teams will be participating in the second competition.
Safe and reliable
The students are using Swagelok parts in the braking system. At such high traveling speeds, there can't be any question about whether the brakes will activate when needed. The students say they like Swagelok not only for the quality and reliability of the parts, but for the availability of technical help.
Do you need to get a project up to speed? We not only have safe, reliable Swagelok components for you, but also our global expertise in fluid systems. Call us at 510-933-6200 or contact us through our website.
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