TUM Munich is shaping the future
The light diffusers on the outer edge of the capsule are coated with the high-performance adhesive technicoll® 9414 (Image source: Image: TUM //
With the Hyperloop you are literally looking down the tube, but you can see extremely well thanks to the high-performance adhesive. The Hyperloop is a means of transport currently in development that will in the future race through a vacuum tube at speeds of up to 1,250 kilometers per hour. Entrepreneur Elon Musk first presented the concept in August 2013. Two years later, the Tesla boss announced the “Hyperloop Pod Competition”. In these competitions, which took place three years in a row, various teams from all over the world competed against each other. They all presented working prototypes, with a focus on design, technology and speed. Among the competition participants was a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The young research group won the prize twice for the fastest capsule, which most recently reached a top speed of 482 kilometers per hour. This breakthrough led to the first European test track in Ottobrunn near Munich. The world‘s first trip under vacuum conditions with passengers took place there on July 10, 2023. Driving through the narrow tube is still a thing of the future. But there is already light in and at the end of the tunnel for the TU Munich. Thanks to the MMA high-performance adhesive technicoll® 9414, the innovative passenger capsule is even better perceived. Why not hop on board this high-speed train with us and find out for yourself how an adhesive creates more light and less voltage at almost the speed of sound.
From San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes. This is the vision of Tesla boss Elon Musk. In 2013 he presented his mobility dream to the world: the Hyperloop Train. A mixture of supersonic aircraft, high-speed train and hovercraft. If his dream comes true, passengers in capsules, so-called pods, will race through tubes made of steel or concrete at a breathtaking speed of 1,250 kilometers per hour. For comparison: the speed of sound is around 1235.5 kilometers per hour. The drive takes place either using magnetic levitation technology or electromagnetic technology. so that the capsules slide almost smoothly on a cushion of air. With both types of drive, there is very low air pressure in the tubes, close to an absolute vacuum.
The first passenger trip under vacuum conditions took place on July 10, 2023 in Ottobrunn near Munich. It is the first Hyperloop test track in Europe certified for passenger operation under vacuum conditions. It was implemented thanks to a team of students from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). A few years earlier, they had taken part in a competition called the “SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition”, which was launched by Elon Musk to accelerate the development of the hyperloop.
On the 1.6 kilometer long test track in Hawthorne (California), the capsule of the WARR (Scientific Working Group for Rocketry and Space Travel) Hyperloop team at TUM reached the highest speed on January 29, 2017.
An adhesive sheds light on the vision of the future
During the first passenger trip in summer 2023, you got a first impression of the mobility solution of the future that is being developed. On a test track of 24 meters, the capsule achieved a top speed of 16 kilometers per hour. The TUM Hyperloop team is targeting speeds of up to 900 kilometers per hour with their technology. Your system consists of a network of tubes with a diameter of around four meters, a passenger module and an operations control center including controls and vacuum pumps. There are light diffusers on the tubes, which use LEDs to ensure even illumination. There is also LED lighting on the outer edges of the passenger capsule. To attach these striking, slightly curved light strips, the TUM Hyperloop team used the crystal-clear 2-K MMA adhesive technicoll® 9414 from RUDERER Klebetechnik.
The decisive factor in this decision was that this high-performance adhesive forms a transparent adhesive joint and does not impair the appearance in the slightest. The adhesive points should fit seamlessly with the high-quality plastic surfaces and support the soft lighting effect, which was also successful. Thanks to its good flexibility, excellent adhesive strength and high temperature and media resistance, technicoll® 9414 also extends the service life and durability of the light diffusers, even at high speeds.
It remains to be seen whether the Hyperloop will be a safe, sustainable and economically viable solution to the transportation problems in Europe and around the world in the future. But if one day you actually find yourself in this mega-fast mode of transportation, remember this: A billionaire wanted to connect the world with vacuum tunnels, but it was glue that shed light on this vision of the future.
Further information online at www.ruderer.de
Image source: Image: TUM //
About RUDERER KLEBETECHNIK GMBH
RUDERER KLEBETECHNIK GMBH is your specialist for a wide range of premium industrial adhesives. We are a constantly growing, second-generation family business. Our headquarters are in Zorneding near Munich. With our more than 30 years of product and industry expertise in the area of bonding, we can optimally support our customers from industry and trade and accompany them in bonding projects – both with the right adhesive products and with the necessary know-how about composite materials and technologies , and applications.
We are dealers and we are manufacturers. This not only guarantees our customers the best technological adhesive solution, but also, thanks to our large warehouse, very high product availability for fast, stable supply chains as well as the greatest possible flexibility, for example in terms of container size or requests for changes to delivery dates.
Our wide and deep range of adhesives includes many premium adhesives from well-known manufacturers such as technicoll, Araldite, Sika, HB Fuller, 3M, Panacol, Otto-Chemie, Kömmerling, Born2Bond (Bostik), Weiss-Chemie, Drei Bond, Loctite, Teroson. We select our suppliers carefully and ensure that we only include adhesives of excellent quality in our portfolio. Access to many different adhesive brands enables us to offer our customers brand-independent advice, always manufacturer-neutral in the sense of the best solution for the respective requirement. In our technical center we can carry out test bonding for our customers in order to determine the right adhesive. This is particularly helpful and useful when the customer does not know the exact properties of the materials to be bonded. We can also carry out aging tests, climate change tests, etc. for our customers and determine tensile shear strengths. If our customers do not have any free production capacity or lack the bonding know-how, we take care of the bonding projects and carry out the bonding on a contract basis.
With our own brand, the traditional brand technicoll®, (www.technicoll.de), we offer a complete range of adhesives for professional applications and, if necessary, modify or develop the right adhesive for individual customer requirements. technicoll® has been known on the adhesive market for over 50 years. For decades we have been successfully supplying key industrial sectors such as automotive/transportation/special vehicle construction, the plastics industry, the upholstery industry and the metal industry
As a future-oriented, second-generation family business, we attach great importance to the training and further education of our employees. The focus of our specialized team is always to provide our customers with competent advice using in-depth technical know-how and, if necessary, to support them across entire projects.
Our future is digital. We recognized this back in 2007 and launched our online shop www.ottozeus.de. There, our customers receive all high-quality adhesive brands, the right accessories, a lot of important information and, if necessary, telephone adhesive advice – everything quickly and reliably, just as you would expect from an online shop. The extensive adhesive range on www.ottozeus.de includes almost 1,000 items that can be ordered 24/7 for commercial customers from trade, crafts and industry, as well as experienced DIY enthusiasts.
Further information at www.ruderer.de, www.technicoll.de and www.ottozeus.de
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