• user134450@feddit.org
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    5 days ago

    Check out their road map and the videos of their prototypes. It is very much not a tech bro project :). The first goal isnt event maglev but magnetic propulsion.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      The first goal isnt event maglev but magnetic propulsion.

      The TSB does the same, on plain steel rails. Levitating on them, using them as what’sitcalled reaction component in linear magnetic propulsion, only the power transfer is direct contact. TSB rails may look a bit fancy but they’re two electrified steel beams in concrete casing. Your Poles may be working on an improvement to linear motors but it’s not a new concept. Thinking of it they should look into breaking applications: Mechanical breaking causes massive wear so fast trains are using induction brakes but those don’t work to bring the train to a complete standstill, but if the brake is a linear motor it could do that. Selling magnetic brake tech to Siemens or Alstom would probably set the lot of them up for life.

      The company developed TSB because they were part of the Transrapid consortium, responsible for the track, and judged that ultimately track cost was why the whole thing failed to materialise, so they sat down and said “what’s the cheapest track we can build” and then designed the rest of the tech around that. Cost differs depending on lots of details but overall they’re actually cheaper than standard rail, doubly so if you take lower maintenance costs into account.