thyssenkrupp x TUM Boring: Faster than a snail
An article by Daniela Große
A tunnel drilling machine that travels faster than a snail? Doesn't sound particularly impressive at first, but it's a real challenge for an entire industry. 60 students from the Technical University of Munich took on the challenge - and won Elon Musk's "Not-A-Boring-Competition"! Included: a slewing bearing from thyssenkrupp rothe erde.
Tomorrow's transportation should be one thing above all: fast and environmentally friendly. But reality shows dense roads and slow-moving traffic. No wonder that for some the future of mobility lies underground. This is also the opinion of Tesla founder Elon Musk. Amid heavy traffic, surrounded by a multitude of cars, he came up with an idea: revolutionize tunnel construction to relieve road traffic in the future.
Mobility of the future: an outlook on the mobility of tomorrow
To achieve this, however, tunnel drilling machines must above all become faster. Currently, tunnel drilling machines dig through the earth more slowly than an ordinary snail crawls. By way of comparison, the common snail achieves top speeds of around 3 meters per hour, while the record in tunneling is 2.33 meters per hour. But how do these huge giants actually work?
Anything but boring: Not-A-Boring-Competition
To make tunneling more efficient and profitable, Elon Musk founded the Boring Company in 2016 and launched the "Not-A-Boring-Competition". Companies, amateur engineers, and students could take part. The task was quite simple: Beat the snail. 60 students from the Technical University of Munich accepted the challenge and set themselves the goal of breaking the snail's speed record!
Learn more about the competition: TUM Boring – A tunnel for Musk