Starting in June, South Korean steel company POSCO will supply a total of 2,100 tons of specialized hot-rolled steel to the test track of the European Hyperloop Center (EHC), a national project of the Netherlands.
POSCO has developed PosLoop355 steel, which has 1.7 times higher vibration absorption than conventional steel and has excellent seismic performance, improving stability.
“POSCO will become a global leader in the sustainable mobility market of the future through the mass production and supply of hyperloop steel, future transportation, through the collaboration between POSCO Europe, POSCO International and SeAH Steel,” said Dae-ap Kim, Head of Marketing hot-rolled steel and wire rod POSCO.
POSCO plans to actively supply steel for hyperloop projects to be carried out at home and abroad.
The amount of steel required for the production of hyperloop pipes is 2,000 tons per 1 km, so the construction of a transport tunnel between Seoul and Busan (400 km) will require more than 800,000 tons of steel products.
Hyperloop is an environmentally friendly vehicle of the future that propels a maglev capsule inside a large vacuum tube at speeds of 1,000 km/h or more. Its power consumption is 8% of the cost of an aircraft, and its construction cost is 50% of the cost of an expressway.
Hyperloop is based on the straightness and stability of high speed tubes, so the material of the tube must be able to withstand the vibrations and shocks that come with high speed movement. Steel is recognized as the most suitable material for hyperloop because it has excellent airtightness, which maintains the internal pressure in a vacuum state for the longest time compared to other materials, and has excellent workability for accurate tube connection.
POSCO has created a differentiated steel production technology for hyperloops and has applied for nine patents related to structural technologies, such as a method for producing steel specifically for tubes of vacuum trains
