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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]

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paternosters. You say terrifying, I say fun. There's one in Leicester University (not the only one in the UK, I'm sure). Really not that dangerous, with a cable near the top of each aperture that triggers a stop if it's touched.

The SF garage my fiancee parks in has this thing made from an industrial belt, with steps bolted onto it. I think there are quite a few of those in Stuttgart as well, though they are being fazed out. It's very efficient, but not for ze stupits!

I saw one like this as a child, in Chicago. As I remember, it was explicitly only for the employees to use to get to the cars, as it was a valet facility.

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

#172
post #163
post #11

So many negative comments for a Saturday. This is a marvel of engineering and deserves a celebration. Humbled by our ability to re-invent more and more. Well done to all involved.

Simplicity in design should be what we celebrate, and things that actually make it into production. All this is for now is a slick video.

It is actually in production, here's the working test version in a tower they built just for it, by Tom Scott: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdTsbFS4xmI

And it has it's first production project in the OVG East Side Tower Berlin (though not yet finished building)

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

#174
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds complex and expensive.

Less than you'd think, if you design it right. You only need to gimbal the car and make it bottom-heavy. Still more complex and expensive than not doing it, but no computers or actuators are required.

Ah, yeah, you're right.

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

#175

The elevator industry has been playing around with multi-cab systems for many years. The Otis Odyssey system (1997) [1] had cabs that could move both horizontally and vertically. The cabs were more like containers carried vertically in ordinary elevators and slid out sideways for horizontal movement. Otis built a full-sized prototype, but nobody ever ordered one. Otis considered ropeless elevators, but in 1997 it loo…

My first read is that this system would be useful for inventory or parts management / movement. Rather than pepole movement, cargo.

This would also be 1) more forgiving of "whooses", and of what I suspect are going to be some pervasive acceleration and directional issues.

Crates of goods don't get motion-sick.

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

#176

One issue I haven't seen addressed is that the horizontal shafts will block foot traffic through the building.

Solutions: Have an elevator plane on the building -- shafts and corridors which are all located at one extreme side of the building, rather than the core.

And/or have horizontal transit floors. You don't need horizontal transit at every floor, just sufficiently frequently to accomplish lateral transfers.

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

#177

Schedulers for Multi must be fun - I'm sure they must have employed a whole research group for solving this problem. Scheduling simple elavator systems is still a problem nowadays, this one? It's so much harder.

I'm rather sure they haven't. Source: Myself, working in a high-rise building served by ~20 ThyssenKrupp elevators, 10 of which actually share 5 shafts (they're not the ropeless version though, AFAIK), and the scheduling sucks big time . We got them to informally acknowledge that they're being wiped every night to get around some nasty bugs, so they never learn traffic patterns, but even then it's infuriating to see…

I've seen them work ok in an office building with ~15 floors and 6 elevators until lunch time, when the extra traffic made them take far longer than it seemed they should have.

I'm guessing those didn't detect if no one got in the car and they still went to all their scheduled floors.

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

#178

The big benefit is that you get more than one elevator per shaft. For skyscrapers the amount of floor space wasted by elevators grows exponentially by the number of floors. Say you have a 5 story building that needs a one shaft elevator. 5 floors tiles 100 sqft per floor is 500 sqft of wasted shaft space. Then say you have a 10 story building that needs two shafts. Now you are wasting 10 floors times two shafts or 2,…

Why not invent and install spiral escalators? That would give you the high throughput of the paternoster more safely. You could still have a few elevators for travel between the higher up 'elevator lobbies' people mentioned.

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

#180

The elevator industry has been playing around with multi-cab systems for many years. The Otis Odyssey system (1997) [1] had cabs that could move both horizontally and vertically. The cabs were more like containers carried vertically in ordinary elevators and slid out sideways for horizontal movement. Otis built a full-sized prototype, but nobody ever ordered one. Otis considered ropeless elevators, but in 1997 it loo…

I am wondering if the solution is to use modular counterweights that can also be moved sideways and swapped around too.
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