SEOUL
-- South Korea's steel group POSCO will supply PosLoop 355, a steel
material for hyperloop tubes, to Hardt, a European technology company that has
led a hyperloop development program in the Netherlands. Hyperloop vacuum tubes
are used in a revolutionary bullet train project to transport passengers and
cargo in special capsules through tubes with low pressure.
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.