Share this
by Alecia Robinson on Thu, Oct 19, 2017 @ 09:10 AM
University students in Munich rely on Swagelok in worldwide competition.
Swagelok fittings were a key component for the braking system on the WARR Hyperloop pod during the Hypeloop Pod Competition put on by SpaceX. Watch this short video to learn more.
Elon Musk is famous for two very different kinds of transportation: the Tesla electric car and the reusable rockets of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX. Now Musk is hoping to develop yet another transportation idea. This time it's a high-speed train that could cover more than 300 miles in less than 30 minutes. It's called the Hyperloop.
Unlike traditional rail transportation, the Hyperloop runs inside a tube with very low air pressure. The system is designed to move "pods" of people and cargo at close to the speed of sound while using very little energy.
The concept is still in the experimental stage, but already Swagelok parts are playing a role.
Competition
To give his idea a jump-start, Musk set up a competition involving teams of university students. Swagelok has sponsored a team of 30 students from the Technical University of Munich that has advanced to the finals. The team 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, reducing the air resistance to zero.
You can watch the team at work in a five-minute video from Swagelok.
The Hyperloop competition gives students a chance to learn in a way that a regular academic course never could. Designing and assembling the pod takes them beyond classroom theory by getting their hands on the components. They have to take care of real-world details such as leaving enough room for each component, and other aspects of a project that aren't likely to come up until you actually start building it. The work also brings together computer science, mechanical engineering and civil engineering students from several countries. The students say they like Swagelok not only for the quality and reliability of the parts, but for the availability of technical help.
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 safely when needed.
If the Munich team wins the competition, their work could end up having an affect on the transportation that people take every day. Maybe your next project won't change the world, but that doesn't make it any less important to you. Rely on the same high quality and expertise that the Munich students are using to move their project forward. Call us at 780-437-0640 or contact us through our website.
Additional resources