Baumer is supporting Swissloop again this year - a project team of ETH students that has set itself the goal of developing a new Hyperloop pod within a year. What does that mean? Almost 30 innovative, smoking heads, a shared vision and a whole lot of startup vibe in the project hangar in the innovation park in Dübendorf, Switzerland.

In this series we present the project and its path to the competition at the European Hyperloop Week in four parts:

Part 1/4 – design phase:

The students' goal is to develop a pod that travels through a vacuum tube as fast as possible within one year, while keeping track of the latest technical developments. In addition to annually changing requirements, a special feature is that only certain technologies work in a vacuum. Special pressure conditions and magnetic fields pose particular challenges for the pod. And this is exactly where Baumer technologies come into play: 

The OM20 laser distance sensors for distance measurement are characterized by their immunity to ambient light and by their independence from external conditions. This enables students to use the pod even under changing environmental conditions, such as changing light conditions and changing rails. 

Pressure is measured using our high-precision PBMN sensors, which are used to monitor ambient pressure and brakes. Since the pod in the motor and the power electronics generates high magnetic fields, the sensors must be correspondingly resilient in the area of EMC resistance to magnetic and high-voltage fields. 

On the Baumer side, our colleagues Thomas Schneider and Andreas Staub from Sales Switzerland are on hand to provide advice and support to the project team. They support the design and layout of the sensors as well as their application in the pod. 

In February, the student team will face the next challenge: the assembly of the developed components. We are already excited!