Maglev: the Revolutionary Transportation of the 21st Century

Online, January 6, 2014 (Newswire.com) - The only alternatives to airplanes -- feet, cars, buses, boats and conventional trains -- are just too slow for today's fast-paced society. Maglev is short for magnetic levitation, which means that these trains will float over a guide way using the basic principles of magnets to replace the old steel wheel and track trains. Maglev trains move more smoothly and somewhat more quietly than wheeled mass transit systems. High-speed maglev trains promise dramatic improvements for human travel if widespread adoption occurs.

Maglev trainsare safer and cause fewer accidents than other forms of transport because of the guide tracking designs. They are cost effective as there is no need for an on-board crew to operate. Although maglev tracks are much more expensive to construct, they require less maintenance and have lower ongoing costs.Furthermore, whilst aerodynamic noises are unavoidable; maglev trains run more quietly and smoothly, compared with urban elevated rail and elevated highway. Moreover, in high speed, maglev can run along the existing transportation corridor without costing too much land resources, and also ease the burden on the environment, as they emit no harmful substance in operation.

In addition their non-reliance on traction and friction means that acceleration and deceleration can surpass that of wheeled transports, and they are unaffected by weather. Although conventional wheeled transportation can travel very quickly, a maglev system allows routine use of higher top speeds than do other conventional rail, and it is this type which holds the speed record for rail transportation. Vacuum tube train systems might hypothetically allow maglev trains to attain speeds in a different order of magnitude, but no such tracks have ever been built.

Despite decades-long research and development, there are presently only two commercial maglev transport systems in operation, with two others under construction. In April 2004, Shanghai began commercial operations of the high-speed Trans-rapid system, although it has recently been dubbed a white elephant. In March 2005, Japan began operation of the relatively low-speed HSST "Linimo" line in time for the 2005 World Expo. In its first three months, the Linimo line carried over 10 million passengers. South Korea and the People's Republic of China are both building low-speed maglev lines of their own design, one in Beijing and the other at Seoul's Incheon Airport.

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Based in California, Stanford Magnets has been involved in the R&D and sales of licensed Rare-earth permanent magnets, Neodymium magnets and SmCo magnets, ceramic magnets, flexible magnets and magnetic assemblies since the mid of 1980s. We supply all these types of magnets in a wide range of shapes, sizes and grades