Elevators and lifts have been in use for a long time now. After years of advancements and evolutions, today’s elevators and lifts are extremely modernized and innovative. Elevator cars, freight elevators, and passenger elevators can be commonly seen in almost every commercial building. The use of lifts and elevators has greatly increased in the past few years. They reduce the time of travel and make movement effortless. The lift designs are lavish and functional. They are safe and meet the requirements of the passengers.
Need for Smart lifts and elevators
However, the changing times of today have given rise to newer demands and expectations from the elevator systems. Today’s lifts and elevators should be space-saving, energy-efficient, sustainable, time-efficient, low-maintenance, cost-friendly, safe, durable, and offer a solid access control. Furthermore, the rapid urbanization has led to an increase in the demand of best commercial lifts and best home elevators.
Moreover, modern demands are not limited to space and cost-efficiency. Smart elevators and lifts have brought about a new wave of advancement in the world. Now, you don’t need to stand in line and wait for the lift to come only to find out that it will take several stops before reaching your desired destination. The smart systems guide you to the lift that will take you to your destination in the quickest time. These systems are incredible for high-traffic hours.
Sensors and Cloud connectivity makes repair possible even before the actual damage is caused. The initial breakdowns in the machinery are detected before it can hamper the lift and the repair is done.
What’s more?
Smart lifts and elevators can even predict future problems and allow the elevator technicians to fix them.
Considering these demands, manufacturers have come up with many innovative and diverse types of lifts for homes and commercial buildings. These next-level innovations in lifts and elevators solely serve the purpose of meeting the latest challenges.
But before learning more about the innovations in lifts and elevators, let us read about the different types of lifts for homes and offices.
Types of Elevators
Traction Elevators:
This type of elevator has ropes that are attached to a motorized wheel above the shaft. These lifts travel faster than the hydraulic lift designs. They are used in both mid-rise and high-rise buildings. The electronic motors eliminate the occupants’ weight by using the counterweight system. This makes the movement of the traction elevators easier.
Hydraulic Lifts:
An elevator consists of a cab or an elevator car that is mounted on a platform in a lift shaft. In hydraulic lift designs, the elevator cars are raised and lowered using hydraulic power.
MRL Elevators:
Installation of lifts and elevators consume a lot of building space which is used for lift shafts. For an efficient lift system, it is important that it uses as less space as possible. Elevator manufacturers from all over the globe have been working hard to harness the latest technologies to develop space-efficient lifts and elevators. The machine-roomless elevators or MRL elevators are basically hydraulic lift designs that do not require additional machine space. These lifts save a lot of space and energy.
Pneumatic Elevators:
The pneumatic elevators use a vacuum and a valve to move the elevator car upwards and air to move it down. These elevators are ideal for places where there are a limited number of passengers. The lift is designed for single-passenger capacity to three-passenger capacity. It is also designed in wheel-chair accessible mode. These are the best home elevators and are used in hospitals as well.
Freight elevators:
These lifts are heavy-duty commercial lifts designed to haul material. The freight elevator cars are engineered to lift more than 20,000 pounds of weight. They are hugely customizable to cater to the needs of the building.
All these lifts and elevators solve one or the other purpose successfully. However, today, the needs of buildings have changed exponentially. The world is moving at a very fast pace and so should our lifts and elevators. The growing urbanization and population have led to a massive space crunch.
The smart lifts and elevators serve the following purposes effectively:
- Controlling load weighing capacity
- Regulating the number of trips and door cycles needed in rush hours and otherwise.
- Reducing the waiting time
- Analyzing and working according to the traffic trends of the building.
In addition to that, we are also running out of natural resources such as electricity and fuel. Therefore, we need a complete solution for all the problems.
Several innovations have been made in lifts and elevators systems to make them futuristic. Some of the leading lifts brands such as Otis lifts, Thyssenkrupp lifts, Johnson lifts, Kone Lifts, and many more have already come up with some amazingly innovative lifts and elevators.
Thyssenkrupp Multi moves both horizontally and vertically.
MULTI is an ambitious lift system by Thyssenkrupp. MULTI elevators Thyssenkrupp are the first cable-less elevator in the world to move both horizontally and vertically. The lift works on liner motor technology to reduce time and energy consumption. With increasing urbanization, the buildings are becoming taller and wider with more complex structures. The traditional regular elevators cannot do justice to the aesthetics and demands of the buildings. Thus, architects and designers are looking to go beyond the normal. This is where Thyssenkrupp lifts come in the scene. The lift shafts move vertically as well as sideways. It conveniently validates urban mobility needs.
Moreover, MULTI elevators Thyssenkrupp are used feasibly for mega-high-rise buildings. It uses very less lift shaft space. It increases the usable area of the building by up to 25%. The speed of the Thyssenkrupp lift decreases the waiting time of the passengers.
MULTI does not use cables. On the contrary, the linear motors are energized to move the lift. You might wonder if it is unsafe to provide mobility to the elevator without the cables to hold on to. However, the elevators cars come with batteries to offer additional safety to the lift in case of energy breakdown. In addition to that, the multi-step braking system restricts the cabins from moving freely.
Thyssenkrupp is making several attempts to make MULTI more futuristic by introducing it to Artificial Intelligence and IoT technology.
Schindler Ahead
Schindler Ahead uses IoT technology and makes the lifts smart.
It is a complete digital solution for lifts, elevators, and escalators. It uses IoT technology to digitalize your regular elevators. The Ahead improves the service reliability, diagnostics, and durability of Schindler elevators. It connects the passengers, service technicians, customers, and equipment technicians in real-time. Schindler Ahead is a revolutionary digital system that offers completely closed-loop maintenance, monitoring, interaction, and information system for lifts and escalators. The best part about Schindler Ahead is that it integrates easily with the existing Schindler elevators and the building infrastructure. Thus, architects are becoming great fans of this digital system.
Furthermore, Schindler Ahead connects the lifts and escalators with Schindler’s Cloud-Platform. It offers real-time data and insights, predictive analytics, and proactive two-way communication. The OTA (over-the-air) updates to ensure that this advanced technology remains advanced in the future also. The growing portfolio of Cube Apps unleashes new services so that the system never gets outdated.
Otis Double-Deck Elevator is the tallest lift in the world.
The lift brand Otis has installed the world’s longest double-deck lift in Korea. The elevator runs more than 450 meters. It carries 54 passengers in one minute using a single hoistway. The advanced technology used by Otis lifts has changed the future of lifts and elevators entirely. The lift brand has added several additions to its range of futuristic lifts and elevators such as Otis Skyway and Otis Gen2 Dynamic elevators. These Otis lifts come with seismic sensors that detect potential earthquake or building’s movement from strong wind. They come with escape routes to move passengers to safety in an event of an emergency.
The double-deck system offers the comfort of assigning the cabs to the odd or even floors during rush hours. This cuts the number of stops and reduces the waiting time of the passengers. Additionally, some double-deck lift designs are such that instead of transporting two groups of passengers in the double elevator cars, one carries the passenger and other carries the goods.
Furthermore, Otis service for lifts and elevators offers instant, real-time performance, maintenance, and other detailed analysis.
The lifts are easy to install and space-efficient. Otis manufactures the best commercial lifts and residential lifts with IoT technology for optimum use and efficiency.
Johnson Eyeris mobile app gives touchless elevator control.
Owing to the shift in the world’s dynamics due to the ongoing pandemic COVID-19, it has become essential that we limit physical contacts up to a great extent. To match with the new normal of the world, Johnson lifts has come up with an interesting, useful, and futuristic elevator operating system. This innovation allows passengers to operate the lifts without touching the buttons or the screen. The mobile app EyeRIS makes it possible for the passengers to select the Present Floor and the Destination Floor after scanning the Johnson lift’s QR code. This unique solution has proved to be a great boon for commercial and residential buildings where a diverse crowd meets and travels every day. In India, this smart elevator system’s use has already begun at places like the Chennai Metro Office.
Toshiba’s Outdoor Elevators
Toshiba outdoor lift adds to the aesthetics of the building.
If the interior structure of the building is such that it does not have space to accommodate an elevator system, you can install it on the outside. You might wonder if it will hamper the front elevation design of the building or make it look ugly. However, maintaining your building’s aesthetics along with increasing its space-efficiency and functionality has been made possible by Toshiba. This incredible lift brand has designed flawless outdoor elevators for buildings and pushed the limits of technology. The high-speed outdoor lift design can run at a speed of more than 350m/min. There is no hoistway wall and it has a solid preventive system for the passengers’ protection from any mishap.
KONE Destination Signalization has a touchscreen, user-friendly operating panels
Today, almost all the best lift brands develop green elevators for sustainable development. The MRL elevators use high-efficiency PM Gearless motor system that greatly reduces the energy consumption by more than 50% compared to the geared systems. The use of light-weight, lubrication-free, PU coated steel belts in lifts and elevators instead of steel wire ropes further increase energy-efficiency. Use of roller guides instead of lubricants improves sustainability. Green elevators are not just about the reduction of energy consumption but also about energy recovery. Use of AI in elevators and lifts such as the KONE destination signalization system manages the traffic in the lifts. It must be noted that lifts consume the least energy when they are loaded with only 50% of their total capacity. Therefore, these smart destination control systems make energy-saving possible. Green elevators reduce the overall carbon footprint from the time of their manufacture to installation.
HoloLens for Thyssenkrupp lift repairs
Microsoft HoloLens allows Thyssenkrupp lift repairs from a distance.
In the wake of innovating the lifts and elevators, their repair and maintenance cannot be sidelined. What is the use of a technologically advanced super-speed lift if its repair takes hours and hours of hard work and mind-drilling? To get away with the issue of mega-high-rise lift repairs, Microsoft has come up with a wonderful, futuristic gadget called the HoloLens. It enables a mechanic to look around the elevator and its components without climbing tens of floors. The HoloLens looks like a pair of heavy ski goggles with a ratcheted knob to tighten the straps against your scalp. When a lift mechanic puts it on, he can see and touch the components of the lift and use hand-motions to explore them individually. After finding out the fault area, the mechanic can go fully prepared and fix it.
Conclusion
The innovations in technology and mechanics have redefined the face of lift and elevators systems. The future of these systems will be more energy-efficient and safe.
Technologies like IoT allow predictive maintenance of the lifts. It can predict the lifts need for maintenance services before it breakdowns. The faults can happen for multiple reasons, from heat and friction to abuse by passengers. But the smart elevators can detect and predict every issue. These remote diagnostic and troubleshooting properties of smart lifts save a lot of time and cost. With VR, the technicians don’t even have to go to the site for testing the problem. Proactive repair makes the lifts extremely time-efficient.
The intelligent elevators of today are becoming smarter for tomorrow with every passing day. Previously the lifts that moved only in upwards and downwards direction are now moving horizontally as well. Smart destination systems have reduced the waiting time and improved energy-efficiency. From the aesthetics of the elevator cars to the durability and sustainability of the elevator systems, everything is evolving and getting better. Therefore, we can expect smart lifts and elevators to become more popular in the near future.
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