Blog Posts,Success Stories

Congratulations to Delft Hyperloop, winners at European Hyperloop Week

25 July 2022

A massive congratulations to Delft Hyperloop for winning the Complete Pod Design Award at the second ever European Hyperloop Week! As long-standing supporters of the University team, Toray Advanced Composites were proud to supply material for the development of Helios 1, their cutting-edge entry into this year’s competition.

Let’s take a look at how they achieved this fantastic victory.

What is a ‘Hyperloop’?

Hyperloop is a new means of transportation which allows high-speed travel through underground networks. In simple terms, hyperloop systems involve the use of ‘pods’ which are propelled using magnetic propulsion through underground ‘tubes’. Both the tubes and pods are designed to eliminate air-resistance and friction, allowing for high-speed travel with reduced energy usage and creating fewer CO2 emissions.

Many see hyperloop as the transport of the future for both people and goods. Innovation and investment into hyperloop development has been promoted through both the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition (2015-19), and now European Hyperloop Week (EHW). These competitions aim to spark the imaginations of designers and engineers in order to increase the speed, safety, scalability, and sustainability of hyperloop pods to make the transportation more viable.

Delft Hyperloop

The Delft Hyperloop team are made up of students from Delft University of Technology. They have been competing in Hyperloop competitions since 2016, winning the first ever SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2017. They are an incredibly innovative, passionate, and ambitious team who are at the forefront of hyperloop developments. Toray are continued supporters of Delft Hyperloop, supplying composite materials to the team since their inception.

Pictured: Delft student laminating Toray 8020 prepreg material on Helios 1 aeroshell

Helios 1

Helios 1’s design built on the previous successes of Delft Hyperloop to create a more efficient and faster vehicle than ever before, including a full-composite pod aeroshell and battery box Helios 1 is the first student designed project where the pod ‘hangs’ off the top of the track rather than being attached at the bottom. This means the pod and track don’t touch, thus creating less resistance and enabling faster speeds.

For this project, Toray supplied their 8020 epoxy-based composite material, and complementary film adhesive system 8020SF. These thermoset composites are produced at our European Centre of Excellence for thermoset chemistries, in Langley Mill (UK), and are ideal for the application due to the high stiffness-to-weight ratio and versatile processing. The lightweight, flexible, and strong composite material is vital for creating pods that are as light as possible to increase speed and reduce the amount of energy needed.

Complete Pod Design Award

All of the team’s hard work came down to how the vehicle performed during the competition. The vehicle performed two perfect runs to showcase the brilliant and innovative design the team worked so hard on. This innovation was recognised by the judges who awarded the team with the prestigious Complete Pod Design Award. This marks another successful chapter in the history of Delft Hyperloop and shows how they are at the forefront of innovative design in the field.

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