High Speed Tunneling
– News
Rollstar supports the project of Swissloop Tunneling, a student initiative of ETH Zurich within the framework of the Not-A-Boring-Competition.
The 40-member ETH team of Swissloop Tunneling has set out to win the Not-A-Boring Competition launched by Elon Musk and is looking for supporting partners for this endeavor. The competition is one piece of the puzzle to help achieve the long-term goal: the creation of low-cost, long tunnels in which trains use Hyperloop technology to connect the major centers of a continent.
For the tunnel boring machine developed by ETH Zurich and industry partners, Rollstar will build and provide a specifically adapted planetary gear for approx. 10,000 Nm.
Hyperloop technology
Hyperloop consists of a sealed tunnel system in which a negative pressure is generated in order to be able to transport passenger cabins at speeds of up to 1,200 km/h. Hyperloop wants to combine the advantages of the short travel time of aircraft with the transport capacity of trains. Up to a distance of 1,500 km, the same journey per passenger can be carried out more cost-effectively and with fewer emissions than a flight.
The technology of the hyperloop can only establish itself on a large scale if it becomes technically possible to produce long tunnels quickly and cost-effectively, for example with a tunnel boring machine robot. At this point, the Not-A-Boring-Competition to accelerate the development of efficient tunnel boring machines (TBM) is starting. Worldwide, about 400 teams, mainly from the university sector, applied for the competition.
Final in the Mojave Desert
To participate in the final in the American Mojave Desert, 12 teams were selected, including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich team. The requirements of the competition are: to build a precise tunnel of 0.5 m diameter over 30 m length in the shortest possible time. The tunnel also contains two bends and the fully automatic TBM is intended to leave a structure on which a miniature Tesla can navigate the tunnel.