The TUM Boring team prevailed against an international field of competitors, winning the "Not-A-Boring Competition." The Munich student team beat competitors from other universities with a maximum drilling speed of 7 mm/s and an average speed of 3.1 mm/s. The TUM team's machine was thus, on average, more than 14 times faster than large tunnel boring machines. The TUM Boring boring machine weighs a total of 22 tons and consists of a 12-meter-long container in which components such as the drill head, steel tubes, and feed system are installed.
TUM Boring uses new drilling approach
To achieve the high speed, the TUM drilling team didn't dig a starting pit, as is usually the case, into whose side wall the drill bit then eats its way, but instead started horizontally at the surface. The drill then swiveled and dug into the underground. This allowed the Munich team to drill a curved tunnel rather than a straight one. The TUM team says:
"We're very happy that we were able to drill the tunnel this way this time. Finding such a simple solution to such a complex problem required a lot of work and the experience gained from several test bores. Radii pose a particular challenge, but the team was highly motivated, and we succeeded."
The Munich team was able to qualify two years ago in the first edition of the “Not-A-Boring Competition” The background to the competition is the development of the Hyperloop mode of transport. The planned means of transport for people and goods is to function using so-called pods that move at enormous speeds in almost airless tubes. The construction of underground tubes for the Hyperloop would require new skills in tunnel construction. Student competitions have also been held for the Hyperloop system in the past, in which Teams from the Technical University of Munich were able to prevail.
