Noiseless Fast Transport- Further Development

June 1 2013 by Scott Bergquist

My Maker Faire exhibit was a monorail track example. It exhibited a design that attempts to reduce noise and energy use as the primary design targets, while keeping the capital costs and operating costs of the rail system minimized. I realized after Maker Faire had concluded, that the use of three ribbons

of stainless-steel, though only .010 in thickness, would add anywhere from $1.00 per foot ($5,280 per mile) to as much as $4 per foot (or, $21,120 per mile) to the material cost of the track. In addition, the geometry of the track was causing problems. Would a different geometry solve the problems I encountered with my setup at Maker Faire? I tried a different rail geometry. Instead of the one-inch by half-inch bar for the load-bearing rail, I substituted another piece of 90-degree angle iron. My bottom component of the rail is already a twoinch piece of angle; the modification was to introduce, as substitute for the horizontal flat bar, another angle, 3/4-inch by 3/4-inch. Two photos follow (next page):

Instead of the stainless-steel strip, I substituted UHMW polyethylene as a slide surface. This will

substantially reduce the material cost per foot for the rail, versus stainless-steel.

UHMW strips (green arrows)

The UHMW strips would also be applied to underside of the two-inch angle as well (see second diagram below). Shown below is a diagram of the Vee track with its horizontal bar component, as show at Maker Faire. While the carriage load (blue arrow) rests on the horizontal bar, additional force is applied to the Vee part of the track (as needed) by keepers at the points shown (by the light blue arrows) to keep the carriage secured to the track. Those keepers also traveled on stainless-steel ribbons (red) mounted on the bottom of the Vee.

Now I have adopted this configuration (below) using a second angle, set at 45-degrees, cradled within the two-inch angle.

In the new configuration, a lot of UHMW polyethylene ribbon is used, foot by foot on the track, instead of stainless-steel. Stainless-steel (red) is used for the ski upon which the carriage slides upon the inverted Vee of UHMW layered on the steel 3/4x3/4 angle. Stainless-steel is also used on the sidekeepers, pressing against left and right ribbons of UHMW affixed to the 2-inch Vee.

The Carriage Slide Ski of Stainless-Steel In the original configuration, the flexibility of the UHMW ski allowed for track curves and elevation changes. In my latest thinking, the stainless-steel ski needs to accommodate curves and bumps and dips as well. Instead of a monolithic ski, I propose making the ski a series of interconnected, overlapping fish scales (see diagram below, bottom view of ski)

which would flex according to any curves in the track. The design for this series of interconnected pieces is proceeding well, and I hope to update this file with pictures in about ten days. Fish-scale overlap may also enhance the effects of the hydrostatic bearing effect. To be tested!