Mobile research factory optimises concrete construction for Hyperloop test facility
The EuroTube Foundation has put its Smart Mobile Factory into operation on the grounds of the Innovation Park Zurich. The container-based factory produces concrete components for the DemoTube research facility. Construction is controlled via a digital twin.
The EuroTube Foundation celebrated the opening of its innovative research facility for sustainable infrastructure on the grounds of the Innovation Park Zurich(IPZ) on 16 September, the foundation announced in a press release. The Smart Mobile Factory produces concrete components for the DemoTube hyperloop test facility being built at the IPZ. The innovative factory was developed by the EuroTube Foundation in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.
The new factory deserves to be called intelligent, as its construction control is linked to a digital twin via sensor data, writes EuroTube. In this way, material flows, processes and CO2 emissions can be continuously optimised during construction. The factory, which is set up in a few standard containers, can also be moved and flexibly set up along infrastructure projects.
At the IPZ, the Smart Mobile Factory will not only produce components for DemoTube, but will also be available to other researchers and start-ups who want to develop and test their own technologies directly on an active construction site. To this end, the EuroTube Foundation has launched the Real Laboratory for Infrastructure Construction educational programme. “As a research partner of the Innovation Park Zurich, we are proud to support projects, start-ups and companies in the development of new products for the transition to sustainable mobility infrastructures,” said Antoine Juge, Managing Director of the EuroTube Foundation, in the press release.