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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 reducenoise and energy use as the primary design targets, while keeping the capital costs and operating costsof 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 permile) to as much as $4 per foot (or, $21,120 per mile) to the material cost of the track. In addition, thegeometry of the track was causing problems. Would a different geometry solve the problems Iencountered 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, Isubstituted another piece of 90-degree angle iron. My bottom component of the rail is already a two-inch piece of angle; the modification was to introduce, as substitute for the horizontal flat bar, anotherangle, 3/4-inch by 3/4-inch. Two photos follow (next page):

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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)

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The UHMW strips would also be applied to underside of the two-inch angle as well (see seconddiagram 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 Veepart of the track (as needed) by keepers at the points shown (by the light blue arrows) to keep thecarriage secured to the track. Those keepers also traveled on stainless-steel ribbons (red) mounted onthe bottom of the Vee.

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

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

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The Carriage Slide Ski of Stainless-Steel

In the original configuration, the flexibility of the UHMW ski allowed for track curves and elevationchanges. 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 interconnectedpieces is proceeding well, and I hope to update this file with pictures in about ten days. Fish-scaleoverlap may also enhance the effects of the hydrostatic bearing effect. To be tested!