[Courtesy of POSCO]
Reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors are essential in the development of hyperloop technology. Hyperloop vacuum tubes keep airtightness by lowering their inside to less than 1/1,000 atmospheres to minimize the air resistance of an encapsulated vehicle.
The European Hyperloop Center, an open test facility in Veendam in the northeast of the Netherlands, will house a 2.6-kilometer (1.6 miles) test track with a cargo-scale tube of 1.4m diameter. POSCO will deliver 275 tons of PosLoop 355 from June 2022 to December 2023 for use in the 450m section of the test track. By 2025, the steel company would supply about 1,800 tons to the 2.7km section.
Hyperloop tube materials must withstand the vibration and impact generated during high-speed driving. Since 2020, POSCO has participated in a joint study with Tata Steel in the Netherlands to develop steel and structural solutions exclusively for hyperloop tubes at a Dutch hyperloop development program led by Hardt.
POSCO said it would actively supply steel to hyperloop projects at home and abroad, starting with the supply of steel for the test route of the European Hyperloop Center. "POSCO will establish itself as a global leader in the future eco-friendly mobility market by mass-producing and supplying steel specialized in hyperloop for eco-friendly future transportation," Kim Dae-up, head of POSCO's energy plant materials sales section, said in a statement on May 11.
Hyperloop technology has been open-sourced by Elon Reeve Musk, a South African-born Canadian-American business magnate and inventor. In 2016, Hyperloop One, a registered SpaceX trademark, carried out its first demonstration of the early stages of the development of the technology.
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