Jun 25 2009
Otis Elevator Company has designed and installed a unique elevator that is being used to transport vehicles to the 94th floor exhibition hall in mainland China's tallest building. This elevator is among 30 elevators and 34 escalators that Otis installed in the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC). Otis is a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
"Otis is proud to have contributed in such a unique way to the magnificent Shanghai World Financial Center," said Otis President Didier Michaud-Daniel. "We know the array of high technology Otis products in this building will provide safe, reliable and efficient service to many thousands of passengers for years to come."
The vehicle elevator will transport passenger vehicles and other heavy loads more than 90 floors from ground level to the exhibition hall in about two minutes. This elevator, with its more than 3-ton capacity, is part of an extensive Otis installation that includes 16 super double-deck elevators that provide space-saving solutions for highly efficient travel within SWFC.
The super double-deck elevators in SWFC are the first such elevators installed in China. Double-deck elevators serve two floors simultaneously using the same hoistway. The design allows more passengers to be served than in a single-deck, single-hoistway configuration. A super double-deck elevator includes a scissor-like connector between the two cars, allowing the height of the top car to be adjusted. The adjustment takes place as the elevator moves and is not noticed by passengers. This feature gives developers flexibility in designing buildings with floors of different heights.
Double-deck and super double-deck elevators save space in a building, allowing room that would otherwise be needed for elevator use to be used as rentable space. Depending on the building and its needs, double-deck elevators can save up to 40 percent of the space required by traditional elevators while increasing transportation capacity by up to 30 percent.