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ThyssenKrupp Multi – world’s first rope-free elevator [video]

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Re: ThyssenKrupp Multi – world’s first rope-free elevator [video]

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People with reduced mobility or reduced vision will love instant closing guilliotines.

The door closing mechanism is designed with limited power and there's an optical sensor to prevent it from even trying to close on someone. Why wouldn't that still be the case on a fast closing door? More tellingly: fast closing doors are absolutely a thing, so clearly the safety issues are not insurmountable, but I only see them in more modern/expensive locations. I suspect it's a price grading move and if you wait…

Yeah but the faster they go the more inertia the whole thing has to handle for those safety mechanism, right? And the added machinery weight impacts on the elevator loading as well.

Re: ThyssenKrupp Multi – world’s first rope-free elevator [video]

#64
post #47

what problem does this solve to justify the crazy expense, complexity and maintenance? the reason elevators exist is because people cannot easily climb 100+ vertical ft, especially while carrying stuff. on the other hand, humans are well adapted for horizontal travel - 15mi per day without breaking a sweat. and when they're not, there are movable walkways like in airports. this whole thing is a solution looking for a…

If those elevators worked they would actually solve a big engineering problem: Very High Buildings can only have a limited number of elevator shafts. But it takes a significant time to use them which makes it problematic if there are a lot of people who want to go. But if elevators were able to travel horizontally that is a first step towards having multiple elevators in one shaft. There are still other problems that…

you can have dedicated up and down shafts where the cars move horizontally only at the top and bottom, like a ferris wheel. without having them move horizontally at any floor. you just need a way to disconnect the rope (like ski lifts). or you can have towing cars that have only 50 ft of rope and operate on rails (like ships that get towed through Panama locks)

Re: ThyssenKrupp Multi – world’s first rope-free elevator [video]

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The door closing mechanism is designed with limited power and there's an optical sensor to prevent it from even trying to close on someone. Why wouldn't that still be the case on a fast closing door? More tellingly: fast closing doors are absolutely a thing, so clearly the safety issues are not insurmountable, but I only see them in more modern/expensive locations. I suspect it's a price grading move and if you wait…

Yeah but the faster they go the more inertia the whole thing has to handle for those safety mechanism, right? And the added machinery weight impacts on the elevator loading as well.

Yes, but there are ways of dealing with inertia. Like making the door lighter and putting padding on the contact surfaces. It's not rocket science.

Also, most of the improvement would come from replacing the worst offenders (5-10 second closing times) rather than from shaving 1 second times to 1/2 a second, and there's tons of precedent for the former from the faster-closing 10% or so of existing installations.

Re: ThyssenKrupp Multi – world’s first rope-free elevator [video]

#67

My ideal elevator would accelerate at a pleasant 4 m/s^2 and have a jerk not exceeding 4 m/s^3. It would have doors that close instantly when the doorway is clear, and start right away. That would be able to take me up a 100 yard high building in 11 seconds. Why can't real elevators be like that? Why must the doors move slowly, and wait for 5 seconds before even starting moving? Why does the elevator reach a sluggish…

People with reduced mobility or reduced vision will love instant closing guilliotines.

A sensor to detect a clear doorway is straightforward.

Doors that have sensitive rubber edges that can detect hitting something and engage a lock within milliseconds are also trivial.

The two methods combined mean that you have safety for soft human fleshy bits incase either malfunctions, yet the door can still be moving at 15 mph or more and close in 100 milliseconds.

Re: ThyssenKrupp Multi – world’s first rope-free elevator [video]

#68

what problem does this solve to justify the crazy expense, complexity and maintenance? the reason elevators exist is because people cannot easily climb 100+ vertical ft, especially while carrying stuff. on the other hand, humans are well adapted for horizontal travel - 15mi per day without breaking a sweat. and when they're not, there are movable walkways like in airports. this whole thing is a solution looking for a…

Elevators share a similar problem to rockets. Only instead of the rocket tyranny, it's the elevator shaft tyranny. At a certain point, making a building taller can subtract from the square footage because of the extra shafts required.

With a linear motor system, more elevators can be added without adding shafts. Part of making that possible is allowing elevators to change shafts.

Re: ThyssenKrupp Multi – world’s first rope-free elevator [video]

#69
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If those elevators worked they would actually solve a big engineering problem: Very High Buildings can only have a limited number of elevator shafts. But it takes a significant time to use them which makes it problematic if there are a lot of people who want to go. But if elevators were able to travel horizontally that is a first step towards having multiple elevators in one shaft. There are still other problems that…

you can have dedicated up and down shafts where the cars move horizontally only at the top and bottom, like a ferris wheel. without having them move horizontally at any floor. you just need a way to disconnect the rope (like ski lifts). or you can have towing cars that have only 50 ft of rope and operate on rails (like ships that get towed through Panama locks)

That means that all cars must traverse the entire distance and that all cars must wait each time a car reaches a floor.

Re: ThyssenKrupp Multi – world’s first rope-free elevator [video]

#70

what problem does this solve to justify the crazy expense, complexity and maintenance? the reason elevators exist is because people cannot easily climb 100+ vertical ft, especially while carrying stuff. on the other hand, humans are well adapted for horizontal travel - 15mi per day without breaking a sweat. and when they're not, there are movable walkways like in airports. this whole thing is a solution looking for a…

Elevators share a similar problem to rockets. Only instead of the rocket tyranny, it's the elevator shaft tyranny. At a certain point, making a building taller can subtract from the square footage because of the extra shafts required. With a linear motor system, more elevators can be added without adding shafts. Part of making that possible is allowing elevators to change shafts.

the limiting factor is that shafts havr to accommodate bidirectional movement and using a rope only allows 1 per shaft.

you can solve this by having the cars on rails and having unidirectional shafts where the cars only travel horizontally at top and bottom. this would allow muliple elevators per shaft.

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