The world's first rope-free elevator

Cable free elevator has been built and it will boost capacity and cut wait times in half.

nextbigfuture

Thyssenkrupp has built the first rope (cable) free elevator. This will enable system like the Star Trek Turbolift which can move up down and side to side.

This is elevator industry’s holy grail. It ends the 160-year reign of the rope-dependent elevator.
MULTI harnesses the power of linear motor technology to move multiple cars in a single shaft both vertically and horizontally!

* magnetic system enables faster elevators to be built
* horizontal movement allows more than one cabin per shaft
* horizontal movement allows more efficient routing where there was no routing flexibility before
* magnetic and ropeless system removes 500 meter height limit for one elevator shaft
* 50% more capacity and half the wait times
* economic benefits to skyscraper owners with less wasted space
“Eventually it could solve the last mile,” Schierenbeck said. “With the horizontal movement of the Multi you can connect buildings, you can connect trains stations with your buildings, you could even have your own cabin waiting for you at your hotel room – all these things which have been a little bit science fiction maybe three, four, five years ago are now possible.”
* Cities could be massively more efficient for movement within multiple buildings.
* Skyscrapers could be taller.
* One up down and side to side network of elevators could for example connect all the casinos on the Vegas strip.
Instead of one elevator cabin per shaft moving up and down, the MULTI offers multiple cabins operating in loop, like a metro system inside a building.

By removing ropes and equipping with linear motors, elevators will be transformed completely – increasing capacity by 50 % and reducing the elevator footprint within a building by half.
In the same way the train slides along a track horizontally, the lift travels both vertically, horizontally and diagonally around a building riding an electromagnetic field, a system known as a linear drive.

“If you can run a 500-tonne train on magnets at 500km/h you should be able to elevate a cabin of 500 kilograms or 1,000 kilograms at a speed of five metres per second,” Schierenbeck said.
The number of buildings over 200 meters has tripled since 2000. More than 180 buildings over 250 meters are currently under construction.

The only visible difference to passengers – and it’s a welcome one – is that the doors open every 15 to 30 seconds, despite having fewer shafts compared to standard elevator systems.
Standard rope and pulley lifts today can only rise to a maximum of around 500 metres. But, skyscrapers are much taller and they are only getting higher. So far, the solution to this has been to build multiple elevators and therefore more shafts but the space required can cost a building up to 40 per cent of highly valuable floor space. “This cannot go on forever,” Schierenbeck said. While the Multi can cost three to five times more than a standard lift system, Schierenbeck claims saving that much space in a central downtown building, for example, is “definitely overcompensating the price of the product.”