ThyssenKrupp is looking to revolutionize architecture by reinventing the elevator. The company says its MULTI is the first rope-free elevator and the first significant improvement in elevator technology since the elevator’s invention in 1854—one cabin in one shaft on one rope. (Since 2003, it’s been possible to accommodate two cabins per shaft.)
Buildings are constrained by the forms of mobility available, the company says. To overcome the constraints, MULTI omits the rope and employs a direct linear-motor drive as part of the elevator cabin. That permits multiple cabins in one shaft as well as horizontal movement, allowing the cabins to circulate throughout a building and removing limits on height shape.
A video shows how MULTI would work.
Other elevator innovations have focused on improving speed and strengthening the rope. FT reports that Toshiba’s elevators in Taipei 101 hold the current speed record at 16.8 m/s, but that record will soon be broken with lifts in the Shanghai Tower and Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre set to reach 18 and 20 m/s, respectively.
As for the rope, the Finnish company has launched a carbon-fiber cable called ultrarope that doubles possible lift-line lengths from 500 m to over 1 km.
FT has an animated graphic comparing elevators in skyscrapers ranging from the CTF Finance Center to the Chrysler Building.
