Peter Boardman of lifts consultancy Dunbar and Boardman takes a look at developments in the sector, and asks if the market has achieved a new high

Within the property industry generally, vertical transportation is considered to be one of the remaining “Black Arts” and perhaps the recent technical developments ensure that it remains so. My own experience, having joined the club of “Black Arts” in 1970, it could be seen at the time that the main-stream production of equipment was based on the technology, indeed the same manufacturing process, that was developed post World War II.

Having said that, the equipment and technology (relays), was based on pre-war technology which had its roots in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Since that time, life has moved on with transistorisation, digital techniques, miniaturisation, computerisation and now mobile technology. In the 1950s it would have been inconceivable that televisions would be installed in lift cars or that devices would be interact with people using them, but this is the world we now live in. So, what are these developments?

Shake ups in the sector

The 1970s and 1980s were mainly concerned about miniaturisation of control systems and the deployment of computerisation in group systems. This group technology also went hand in hand with improvements in machine drives and out went the Ward Leonard systems which required a separate generator to provide the power source for the hoist motor on lifts with a speed over 1.5 metres a second. Also, out went the deployment of Thyristorised drives, which were less energy efficient than the Ward Leonard Systems. The 90’s witnessed the use of Variable Voltage Variable Frequency systems, which provide a level of control and energy efficiency which sets a new industry benchmark for the foreseeable future.

Towards the end of the 1980s and as a result of the miniaturisation of control systems, the industry witnessed the advent of Destination Control Systems developed by Dr Joris Schroeder who headed Schindler’s Swiss Research Team.

Schindler pioneered this approach throughout the 1990s and had sold 700 units by the turn of the century.

What are Destination Controls?

The normal experience of entering the lift car and commanding its destination by pressing a series of buttons would no longer apply. The lift car itself is void of floor buttons but retains the alarm interface and Door Open and Close buttons to allow passengers to ensure safe and efficient transfer of people. Prior to entering a lift car one is confronted with a keypad or display screen in each lobby which permits the required destination to be registered. The screen responds by displaying a lift designation, i.e. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and the passenger then simply moves towards the lift displaying the corresponding letter and stands by its entrance to await its arrival. The system can recognise which terminal you have used and therefore the approximate time it takes to walk there. The system will only open its doors once it has predicted it has its passengers to transfer. As one enters the lift it can count the number of people it is intending to transfer and depart and stop at the corresponding levels prescribed and move on to the next destination. The benefit of this system is it can group individuals going to a particular floor within a particular timeframe, whereas under conventional systems, individuals randomly choose lift cars according to their availability. Each lift car makes less stops and therefore become available to make further journeys determined by demands of the building. This DBC system will prove to be beneficial for the majority of buildings, of between 15 and 20 floors.

Lift designers think outside the box

It was about this time that the next breakthrough in the industry occurred. Inspired “out of the box” thinking and Kone’s development of the Machine Roomless Lift utilising a pancake-style motor turned the industry’s thinking and the associated Standards, which failed to recognise such equipment, on its head. Thankfully, other equally inspired thinking followed by various companies and over recent years levelling the commercial playing field once again.

Back to Destination Control Systems. Around 2000 ThyssenKrupp started to produce these systems and both they and Schindler introduced flat-screen technology as the user interface. Both companies offered systems in the form of an over-lay modernisation product but with a somewhat differing approach. Thyssen uses their touch screens to allow reconfiguration of the system between conventional and destination control as the modernisation proceeds as a means of removing any client/user resistance.

Schindler addresses this issue up front through customer communications and converts the entire system to destination control overnight as a way of gaining efficiency to compensate for the removal of cabs to be modernised. Dunbar and Boardman has employed both companies to undertake modernisations. ThyssenKrupp modernised the lifts at 125 London Wall which was significant in that the building had two banks of five lifts in a low and high rise configuration and through this technology we were able to optimise the level of service to all floors by destination controls. Schindler modernised a group of four conventional and two panoramic lifts, originally of Express manufacture at Lloyds Chambers in the City and a group of three panoramics at the Radisson Hotel in Glasgow.

Security, safety and Schindler’s lift

It should be accepted that now all the major companies, Schindler, Thyssen, Otis and Kone have this technology and I foresee that any major group system will use this application simply to optimise the service to buildings and to take advantage of the flat screen technology with the opportunity to display any messages or information, either as calls are registered on the landings or as people are travelling in the lift cars. As Schindler has already demonstrated, such systems could use security barriers as the passenger interface and because of the personalised nature of the individual’s security card and in the knowledge that they would be travelling in a particular car, urgent messages could be relayed to the individual through this medium.

The most recent innovation is the deployment of two cars within a single lift shaft, again deployed as a group form of traffic handling boost. As a consultancy practice we were involved in the first sale of a Twin System, which is to be deployed in the New London Hospital in Whitechapel, but I suspect this will not be the first system to be commissioned, due to the long construction programme. Twin systems rely on Destination Control systems for the organisation and deployment of lift cars. There is a supervisory control system solely to ensure that the lift cars always maintain a safe distance between those cars sharing the same shaft. In all other respects the technology is traditional lift equipment.

All the principal contractors are leading the way in terms of the development and deployment of the systems referred to above. For example, Kone is planning to install the first Double-Deck system with destination controls under a licensing agreement from Toshiba. I believe Schindler is currently working on by far the most complex Double-Deck/Destination Control project to date involving the 115 floor ICC Tower in Hong Kong. In time, independent contractors will have access to the similar technology and will ensure a level commercial playing field.

Let’s wonder what development will be brought to the market during the next 20 to 30 years. An inspired guess would be linear drives on rope-less cars? Or will the Twin lift system become a Quad System?

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