ThyssenKrupp\u2019s new $43 million elevator test tower soars 246 metres (808 ft) above the German town of Rottweil, but the company\u2019s lifts chief is not only thinking vertically.<\/p>\n
\nAndreas Schierenbeck\u2019s newest elevator, based on magnetic-levitation technology developed for high-speed trains, can move sideways as well as up and down inside the tower\u2019s 12 shafts.<\/p>\n
Dubbed by ThyssenKrupp as the MULTI, the new machine is just one way manufacturers including Switzerland\u2019s Schindler , United Technologies\u2019 Otis and Finland\u2019s Kone are re-imagining the 150-year-old passenger elevator.<\/p>\n
The once-staid heavy equipment makers have unleashed their inner geek, with Internet of Things (IoT) add-ons such as remote maintenance monitoring and access control. Clunky buttons are vanishing, replaced by smartphone apps to guide riders through buildings or bar them from off-limits areas.<\/p>\n
With no steel cables or ropes, the MULTI moves from shaft to shaft with multiple cars in each. Schierenbeck says this will trim space requirements by an estimated 40 percent when deliveries begin in 2019 in the Middle East and Asia, target markets where cramped quarters and urbanisation are sending buildings ever higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransportation capacity is the name of the game,\u201d Schierenbeck said. \u201cIf you get rid of the ropes, then you\u2019re looking in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
VIRTUAL BODYGUARDS<\/p>\n
Though Schindler ditched the idea of horizontal elevators in the 1990s, its own spin on the industry\u2019s future envisions clients tapping into a broad array of services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would you only push a button because you have a breakdown?\u201d said Chief Executive Thomas Oetterli. \u201cWhy not use the same infrastructure to order something; (takeaway) food or your grocery shopping?\u201d<\/p>\n
His new myPORT building-access system is designed as a digital passport, accompanying smartphone users between home and office, with the potential eventually to double as a virtual bodyguard to navigate spaces such as dimly lit parking garages.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll keep on the line until you are safely in the elevator,\u201d he said. \u201cHow much would someone be willing to pay for that? A few cents? If you move one billion people a day … that can make a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schindler has also built a 3-D laboratory at its Swiss headquarters in Ebikon, where engineers wearing special glasses can walk inside a virtual elevator to check for design problems before installation.<\/p>\n
Smart-lift evolution won\u2019t be a trouble-free ride onwards and upwards, however. Costs are paramount, said Hendrik Hesse, a specialist consultant who advises building owners on the installation of new lifts or modernisation of ageing systems.<\/p>\n
Innovation is inevitable, he said, but it will take longer than the companies would like for it to reach the masses. Not everything will succeed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a question of cost,\u201d said Hesse, who previously worked for a leading European lift company. \u201cBuilding owners want to save money and elevator companies want to earn as much as possible for services they should probably provide free.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latest cutting-edge systems won\u2019t come cheap.<\/p>\n
ThyssenKrupp has not released price projections for the MULTI but says that the space-saving qualities will make it competitive in tall skyscrapers where traditional high-speed elevators can run to $600,000 each.<\/p>\n
SMARTER AND FASTER<\/p>\n
Elevators have been getting smarter for a while now.<\/p>\n
In Swiss drugmaker Roche\u2019s 41-storey Basel skyscraper, for instance, the lifts produce electricity when they are braking and then feed it back into the building\u2019s grid.<\/p>\n
Servers running sophisticated algorithms dispatch cars strategically, ensuring fewer trips and shorter waits despite 12,000 daily lift calls in Switzerland\u2019s tallest building.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn off-peak times, the system removes lifts from the traffic pattern to save energy,\u201d said Markus Woellner, Roche\u2019s project leader for the building.<\/p>\n
Elevators are also increasingly equipped with sensors to collect and transmit operational data to the cloud. If a door usually opens in a second but suddenly slows to 1.2 seconds, a technician gets a text message highlighting a potential problem.<\/p>\n
Schindler uses General Electric\u2019s Predix platform, the system the U.S. industrial giant also deploys to monitor jet engines.<\/p>\n
Kone has an IoT pact with IBM\u2019s Watson, while ThyssenKrupp enlisted Microsoft to connect 180,000 elevators to the cloud by 2018.<\/p>\n
Otis, meanwhile, has turned to telecoms group AT&T for wireless links for its elevators.<\/p>\n
Regardless of all the bells and whistles, however, the main goals remain simple \u2014 to improve on the average four to six breakdowns a year and reduce the time people have to wait for lifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my car didn\u2019t start four to six times a year, I\u2019d probably change it,\u201d ThyssenKrupp\u2019s Schierenbeck said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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