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Vertical Transportation Systems: A. T.-P. So Et Al., Intelligent Building Systems © Kluwer Academic Publishers 1999

Vertical transportation systems include lifts, escalators, and other systems to transport people within buildings. Lifts are especially important in high-rise buildings, as occupants will use them multiple times per day. There are two major types of lifts: electric lifts and hydraulic lifts. An electric lift consists of a lift car within a hoistway that travels vertically via suspension ropes connected to a counterweight and powered by a traction motor. Safety devices prevent movement unless doors are closed and include limit switches to cut power if the car overtravels its allowed zone.

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23 views2 pages

Vertical Transportation Systems: A. T.-P. So Et Al., Intelligent Building Systems © Kluwer Academic Publishers 1999

Vertical transportation systems include lifts, escalators, and other systems to transport people within buildings. Lifts are especially important in high-rise buildings, as occupants will use them multiple times per day. There are two major types of lifts: electric lifts and hydraulic lifts. An electric lift consists of a lift car within a hoistway that travels vertically via suspension ropes connected to a counterweight and powered by a traction motor. Safety devices prevent movement unless doors are closed and include limit switches to cut power if the car overtravels its allowed zone.

Uploaded by

Millmanov Tabue
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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4 VERTICAL TRANSPORTATION

SYSTEMS

4.1. INTRODUCTION

Vertical transportation systems include all kinds of transportation media within


buildings, such as lifts, escalators, hydraulic hoists and passengers conveyors etc.
It may be considered the most important building services system for high-rise
buildings. Every occupant of a high-rise commercial building needs to take lifts
at least four times a day, in the morning, during lunch and after office hours. In
this chapter, we shall look into the basic structure of a lift, safety devices, and the
control and monitoring aspects. Modem lift drives and techniques in traffic
analysis will be touched on briefly.

4.2. STRUCTURE OF A LIFT

In accordance with CIBSE Guide D [1], a lift is a permanent piece of lifting


equipment, serving two or more landing levels, provided with a car or platform
for the transportation of passengers and/or freight, running at least partially in
rigid guides either vertical or inclined to the vertical by less than 15°; known in
U.S.A. as an elevator. There are, in general, two major categories of lifts, namely
electric lifts and hydraulic lifts. From the operational target point of view, lifts
can be categorised into four five types, namely passenger lifts, goods (freight)
lifts, service lifts, fire fighting lifts and vehicle lifts. For very special applications,
there are other lifts such as wheelchair lifts, observation lifts, scissor lifts and rack
and pinion lifts etc. As electric lifts and hydraulic lifts are so common, we shall
concentrate our study on these two kinds of lifts.

4.2.1. Structure of an electric lift

Figure 4.1 shows the major components of an electric lift. The vertical void in
which the lift travels up and down is called "hoistway" or "lift shaft". The bottom
of the lift shaft is called "lift well" or "lift pit". The cabin in which passengers
are being carried is called the "lift car". The lift car has its own doors, called "car
doors". At each landing, there are "landing doors". The landing doors are not
powered as they are opened or closed by the car doors under mechanical

A. T.-p. So et al., Intelligent Building Systems


© Kluwer Academic Publishers 1999
28 Vertical Transportation Systems

engagement when the car is within the unlocking zone of each floor. The landing
indicator, or called hall lantern, is used to inform the passengers a certain car
arrives to serve that particular floor. The car doors are powered by a door
operator which is essentially a
Brake"
small DC or AC motor. The ..._____Controller
car is lifted up or down by
suspension ropes terminated at Drive motor
the top of the car frame. The
ropes go up from the car frame
to the machine room which is
normally at the top of the Car guide rail /' Door operator
hoistway and are laid on the
drive sheave, down to the -tt-t--+----Car
counterweight frame. The
drive sheave is mechanically Safety gear -\~¢ljJI~;t;;;~S,p
____ Car
doors
driven by the traction motor
------. Apron
which can be DC or AC, with
Travelling cables-
or without a gear box. For Landing
high speed lifts, the drive is indicator
Landing doors Landing
usually gearless. A brake is pushbutton
installed between the sheave
and the drive motor and it is Counterweight ____
guide rail -
mechanically applied, -Hoistway
electrically released. The
space between the two Counterweight _
terminals of the ropes can be
increased by diverter pulleys. Counterweight _Limit
buffer
At the bottom of the hoistway, switches

there are buffers for the car


and the counterweight. The
"', Car buffer
communication between the
car and the controller inside
the machine room for control Figure 4.1 Structure of an Electric Lift
and display functions is via a
ribbon of travelling cables. The horizontal movement of the car is constrained
by the guide rails using guide shoes for low speed or guide rollers for high speed.

Safety is the most important issue of consideration when a lift is designed. There
are many safety devices built into a lift system. The car doors and landing doors
are both electrically and mechanically interlocked. When anyone car door or
landing door panel is not closed and locked properly, the car cannot move. Inside
the hoistway, there are limit switches that switch off the electric power to the lift
when the car overtravels down into the lift pit or too high up the hoistway above
the top floor. The car doors are equipped with mechanical safety edges, or
optical, infrared or proximity sensors so that when a passenger is entering a car

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