Developing our first levitation system with Goudsmit

This year, Delft Hyperloop is making its first-generation levitation system with which we intend to levitate our 250 kg pod with permanent magnets. Goudsmit, together with their industrial contacts, guided us along the process from conceptualisation to production and assembly. At first, we were inexperienced with the technological design limitations of magnet assemblies. Their goal-oriented approach and technological know-how steered us through a fast thorough design process. Especially experience with optimising and interpreting dynamical magnet models leads us to make fundamental design choices for our system. Together with Goudsmit's experience, over 1000 design configurations were considered and compared.

Moving on towards the production face, new and complex challenges awaited us. Our magnet assembly required precise glueing of incredibly strong magnets. More importantly, everything about our system was required to be vacuum compatible. Goudsmit helped us select magnets that did not outgas and they chose glue that was suitable for vacuum environments. Not only did they help during the conceptual and detailed design phases, but they also assembled and glued our magnet assembly. To validate our magnetic models, Goudsmit has extensive measuring facilities which we could use to test our system.

We are thankful for all of Goudsmit's time, experience and contributions to our system.