The cutterhead has to absorb the high feed forces and remove the material at the front of the machine. The cutterhead is made out of a cutting wheel, rotating drum, housing, sealed bearing, mechanical face sealing, ring gear, four synchronous motors and an auger with the relevant housing and bearing. The cutterhead is made out of complex parts that must be machined to tight tolerances. Precise mechanical engineering is required.

The steering system makes sure we stay right on track and makes small correction movements in correspondence to the guidance system.
It has integrated hydraulics and many sensors to allow precise steering, in the confined space. The Team is also responsible to make sure our tunnel stays in shape after it has been drilled.

The Guidance System aims to measure the TBM‘s diversion from the planned tunnel axis. We use a laser guidance system which can precisely measure the TBM’s heading by measuring the machine’s offset in reference to a laser beam representing the tunnel axis. This means working with surveying technology, to set the right reference points.

The control system acts as a brain for the entire TBM. It receives signals from our almost 30 sensors and 15 actuators and evaluates them accordingly. This control system is implemented on a state-of-the-art programmable logic controller (PLC).

The Propulsion Team ensures the feed and bearing of the tunnel segments. This includes the mechanics of the feed system, the hydraulic control, and the structure of the revolver tube magazine. What is particularly special about the Propulsion Team is the balance between complex mechanics and heavy mechanical engineering. However, this also means a certain amount of responsibility that you have to accept, but which you will also grow with.

The material removal has to take the soil right from the cutterhead and transport it out of the machine. The current system consists of 6 conveyor belts integrated into the pipes we use to construct the tunnel structure. It also includes an auger conveyor, which enables removing all mined material from the drilling process. We are dealing with many suppliers and design custom solutions together with them.

Power is needed for all sensors and actuators in the TBM. In the cutterhead we have water-cooled synchronous motors.  Self-designed cooling plates allows us to achieve the highest possible power density in the cutter head in a confined space. Main challenges lay in electrical and mechanical engineering of custom components.

The operations team takes care of all tasks with the exception of the technical development of the tunnel boring machine (e.g. fundraising/sponsoring & strategic relationships, marketing & branding, finance & association law, team management/infrastructure/logistics & HR etc.) and consists of a combination of subteams for particularly important and intensive topics such as sponsoring or marketing and smaller agile task forces for topics and diverse temporary projects that arise beyond that (incl. crowdfunding, marketing campaigns, event planning e.g. Rolloutevent).