Horizontal Elevators Are the Elevators of the Future
Elevators are about 160 years old now, so it makes sense that someone is trying to give the technology a little lift.
Innovations company ThyssenKrupp has introduced a new building transportation system called the Multi Elevator.
The idea is that old elevator technology takes up too much space in a building and is confined to only one elevator in a shaft at a time, neither of which is very efficient for our rapidly growing cities.
According to the company, as urban environments expand for growing populations we will need to adapt to new designs.
As an alternative to current elevator systems, several cabins in the same shaft of the “Multivator” would move vertically and horizontally, permitting buildings to adopt different heights, shapes, and purposes.
The company plans to use linear motor technology, similar to what is used in maglev trains, to transform conventional elevator cabins into “vertical metro systems” within buildings.
The first Multi Elevator unit is expected to be in tests by 2016.
