In the not-so-distant future, people may be commuting by tube, rather than train or bus.
Hyperloop One, the company behind the self-named Hyperloop, pitches the technology on their website as follows:
“The system uses electric propulsion to accelerate a passenger or cargo vehicle though a tube in a low pressure environment. The autonomous vehicle levitates slightly above the track and glides at faster-than-airline speeds over long distances. We eliminate direct emissions, noise, delay, weather concerns and pilot error. It’s the next mode of transportation.”
Their pitch sounds all well and good, but the idea can appear overly idealistic at best, and a bit sci-fi at worst.
However, the Hyperloop team is confident in their technology, and has previously developed a number of test rigs and other hardware.
Now the Hyperloop team is taking a significant leap forward with their concept this week, announcing the opening of their first tooling and fabrication facility, the Hyperloop One Metalworks, in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
The plant has a footprint of 105,000 square feet and will employ 170 employees including engineers, machinists and welders to build and test components for the DevLoop, the full-system Hyperloop prototype, which will be tested in early 2017.
The Metalworks facility will include motor (stator) testing and will house key equipment and research areas, as well as a metrology room.
The facility will house two Flow Waterjet steel cutters to cut steel using water at pressures of up to 95,000 PSI at up to 36 meters per minute with an accuracy of up to one-thousandth of an inch.
Some of the first Hyperloop parts planned for development at the facility in the first few months include joints between the Hyperloop tube and its supporting columns and the cradles that will hold and protect the tubes before their installation.
State and local officials in Nevada were credited by Hyperloop for their assistance in making the Metalworks facility possible.
“We are thrilled that Hyperloop One is already expanding its manufacturing footprint in North Las Vegas and bringing highly-skilled jobs to other parts of our community,” said North Las Vegas mayor John Lee.
For more information, visit hyperloop-one.com.