1. 12/2/2014 www.ctbuh.org/DesktopModules/DigArticle/Print.aspx?PortalId=0&ModuleId=5721&Article=2296
ThyssenKrupp’s MULTI Elevators Will Go Up, Down, and Sideways
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2014
Essen, Germany
ThyssenKrupp, the German steel and engineering giant, has created the next big leap forward in the elevator industry: a system that isn’t dependent
on ropes or steel cables.
If the technology, named MULTI, does well in tests beginning in 2016, the elevators of the future could be powered by the same magnetic levitation
(maglev) technology that floats the world’s fastest trains above their tracks.
This new system promises to increase the effective speed of vertical transit by having multiple elevators travel in a circular route within the same
shaft, like a vertical subway train line, instead of today’s standard of one or two cars per shaft. The bottom line: Less waiting for the next elevator car.
At the launch event in Essen, Germany, ThyssenKrupp R&D Head Patrick Bass echoed the words of CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood when
he called this new technology the “holy grail” of the elevator industry. During a similar elevator technology launch event in 2013, Wood stated that
the next big step for the elevator industry was one that optimizes lightweight hoist technology.
According to a press release, by removing suspension ropes and equipping elevators with their own motors, vertical transportation capacities in tall
buildings will increase by 50%, and their footprints could be reduced by up to 50%.
CTBUH Research Manager Dario Trabucco was in Essen, Germany for the announcement of MULTI, saying that “This product really has the
potentiality to change the way buildings are designed, allowing for not only a more efficient core design, but also better connectivity in a building
through sky bridges, groups of towers, etc.”
ThyssenKrupp promises its maglev elevators will not only enable such buildings (the footprint will be as little as half the size of a traditional elevator
shafts), but also “futuristic buildings that previously could only be dreamed of,” as Patrick Bass told the Financial Times.
For more on this story, go to QZ.
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