160 Years Later

Elisha Graves Otis original “safety” elevator patent drawing

Elisha Graves Otis installed the 1st passenger elevator in 1857,  160 years later the most revolutionary advancement in vertical transportation has been introduced – the world’s first rope-free traction elevator.

Moving multiple elevator cars in a single shaft, both vertically and horizontally! Its numerous advantages include significantly increased passenger capacity, shorter waiting times, smaller building footprints, and substantially reducing the weight and mass. It does not have the normal design limitations with a building’s height or shape.

As the only sound control company dedicated to elevator noise we quickly went from Wow! to Uh-Oh! Why? Our industry experience has shown that building design (architectural & MEP) and construction details are often the root cause of elevator sound disturbance complaints, not the elevator equipment or its installation.

Architectural and MEP being focused on their portion of a project’s design often forget the other side of the wall. I’m sure eventually the two disciplines will come together to insure the occupied spaces will not be disturbed by this highly mechanical equipment operation.

I can’t imagine the sound level on the other side of  a standard sound rated wall separating occupied spaces from this systems rotating “exchanger” and its locking mechanisms.

ThyssenKrupp Elevator MULTI systems rotating “exchanger”, routing the elevator cars horizontally and vertically