An elevator (US and Canada) or lift (UK, Australia,[1][2][3] Ireland,[4][5] New

Zealand,[6][7] and South Africa[8]) is a type of vertical transportationthat moves people or

goods between floors (levels, decks) of a building, vessel, or other structure.
Elevators/lifts are generally powered by electric motors that either drive traction cables
and counterweight systems like a hoist, or pump hydraulic fluid to raise a cylindrical
piston like a jack.
In agriculture and manufacturing, an elevator/lift is any type of conveyor device used to
lift materials in a continuous stream into bins or silos. Several types exist, such as the
chain and bucket elevator, grain auger screw conveyor using the principle of Archimedes'
screw, or the chain and paddles or forks of hay elevators.
Languages other than English may have loanwordsbased on either elevator or lift.

Elevator lobby at the Forest GlenWashington Metro station in Silver Spring, Maryland

Because of wheelchair access laws, elevators/lifts are often a legal requirement in new
multistory buildings, especially where wheelchair ramps would be impractical.

Some people argue that elevators began as simple rope or chain hoists (see Traction
elevators below). An elevator is essentially a platform that is either pulled or pushed up
by a mechanical means. A modern-day elevator consists of a cab (also called a "cage",
"carriage" or "car") mounted on a platform within an enclosed space called a shaft or
sometimes a "hoistway". In the past, elevator drive mechanisms were powered by
steam and water hydraulic pistons or by hand. In a "traction" elevator, cars are pulled up
by means of rolling steel ropes over a deeply grooved pulley, commonly called a sheave
in the industry. The weight of the car is balanced by a counterweight. Sometimes two
elevators are built so that their cars always move synchronously in opposite directions,
and are each other's counterweight.
The friction between the ropes and the pulley furnishes the traction which gives this type
of elevator its name.

Hydraulic elevators use the principles of hydraulics(in the sense of hydraulic power) to
pressurize an above ground or in-ground piston to raise and lower the car
(see Hydraulic elevators below). Roped hydraulics use a combination of both ropes and
hydraulic power to raise and lower cars. Recent innovations include permanent magnet
 motors, machine room-less rail mounted gearless machines, and microprocessor
controls.
The technology used in new installations depends on a variety of factors. Hydraulic
elevators are cheaper, but installing cylinders greater than a certain length becomes
impractical for very-high lift hoistways. For buildings of much over seven floors, traction
elevators must be employed instead. Hydraulic elevators are usually slower than
traction elevators.

Elevators are a candidate for mass customization. There are economies to be made
from mass production of the components, but each building comes with its own
requirements like different number of floors, dimensions of the well and usage patterns.
Elevator doorsEdit
Elevator doors protect riders from falling into the shaft. The most common configuration
is to have two panels that meet in the middle, and slide open laterally. In a cascading
telescopic configuration (potentially allowing wider entryways within limited space), the
doors roll on independent tracks so that while open, they are tucked behind one
another, and while closed, they form cascading layers on one side. This can be
configured so that two sets of such cascading doors operate like the center opening
doors described above, allowing for a very wide elevator cab. In less expensive
installations the elevator can also use one large "slab" door: a single panel door the
width of the doorway that opens to the left or right laterally. Some buildings have
elevators with the single door on the shaft way, and double cascading doors on the cab.
Machine room-less (MRL) elevatorsEdit

Kone EcoDisc. The entire drive system is in the hoistway

Machine room-less elevators are designed so that most of the components fit within the
shaft containing the elevator car; and a small cabinet houses the elevator controller.
Other than the machinery being in the hoistway, the equipment is similar to a normal
traction or hole-less hydraulic elevator. The world's first machine room-less elevator, the
Kone MonoSpace was introduced in 1996, by Kone. The benefits are:
creates more usable space
use less energy (7080% less than standard hydraulic elevators)
uses no oil (assuming it is a traction elevator)
 all components are above ground similar to roped hydraulic type elevators (this takes away the
environmental concern that was created by the hydraulic cylinder on direct hydraulic type
elevators being stored underground)
slightly lower cost than other elevators; significantly so for the hydraulic MRL elevator
can operate at faster speeds than hydraulics but not normal traction units.

DetrimentsEdit
Equipment can be harder to service and maintain.
No code has been approved for the installation of residential elevator equipment.
Code is not universal for hydraulic machine room less elevators.

FactsEdit
Noise level is at 5055 dBA (A-weighted decibels), which can be lower than some but not all types
of elevators.
Usually used for low-rise to mid-rise buildings
The motor mechanism is placed in the hoistway itself
The US was slow to accept the commercial MRL Elevator because of codes
National and local building codes did not address elevators without machine rooms. Residential
MRL Elevators are still not allowed by the ASME A17 code in the US. MRL elevators have been
recognized in the 2005 supplement to the 2004 A17.1 Elevator Code.
Today, some machine room less hydraulic elevators by Otis and ThyssenKrupp exist; they do not
involve the use of a piston located underground or a machine room, mitigating environmental
concerns; however, code is not yet accepting of them in all parts of the United States.[29][30]

Elevator traffic calculationsEdit

Round-trip time calculationsEdit
The majority of elevator designs are developed from Up Peak Round Trip Time
calculations as described in the following publications:- CIBSE Guide D: Transportation
Systems in Building[31] Elevator Traffic Handbook, Theory and Practice. Gina
Barney.[32] The Vertical Transportation Handbook. George Strakosch[33]
Traditionally, these calculations have formed the basis of establishing the Handling
Capacity of an elevator system.

Modern Installations with more complex elevator arrangements have led to the
development of more specific formula such as the General Analysis calculation. [34]
Subsequently, this has been extended for Double Deck elevators.[35]
Otis Elevator Company operates more than 1.9 million elevators worldwide, giving rise
to its claim that the equivalent of the world population is transported by its products
every five days.[citation needed]
SimulationEdit
Elevator traffic simulation software can be used to model complex traffic patterns and
elevator arrangements that cannot necessarily be analyzed by RTT calculations. [36]
 Elevator traffic patternsEdit
There are four main types of elevator traffic patterns that can be observed in most
modern office installations. They are up peak traffic, down peak traffic, lunch time (two
way) traffic and interfloor traffic.

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