Accessibility Takes Center Stage
Feb 1, 2020
A digital elevator series, helpful tool and hydro modernization package round out offerings.
Compact Home Lift
Pollock Lifts of Carrickfergus, U.K., designs, manufactures and installs lifts throughout the U.K. and Ireland. Its Through-Floor Lift includes what the company calls “a smart electric motor” designed for quiet and energy-efficient operation. It adds that the lift’s self-supporting structure allows it to easily move through the floor. Like the company’s other home lifts, it has a dedicated battery backup, which will always return the car to the ground floor, where passengers can exit via a manual release. It also includes an “Auto Homing Fire Response System” and carries CE compliance.
The product has a traction drive, soft starting and stopping, onboard diagnostics display, self-leveling, a power door, in-car phone and remote-control call stations. Its travel is 4.2 m, and it can carry 225 kg. Ten car sizes are available, as are side-hung, wheelchair and seated configurations.
Low-Rise Wheelchair Lift
Lithuania-based Barduva now offers the RB150 open platform lift designed to be installed with little or no alteration to existing buildings. It is suitable for either indoor or outdoor installation and is called by the company “an appropriate alternative solution to a fully enclosed platform lift.” Its travel height is 600 mm to 3 m, and no pit is required. Other statistics are:
- Nominal load: 400 kg
- Platform size: 1,100 X 1,400 mm/customizable
- Exterior dimensions: 1,300 X 1,760 mm/customizable
- Cabin height: 1,100 mm
- Gate size: 950 X 1100 mm
- Drive type: belt
- Handles: integrated into cabin (both sides)
- Machinery section: between rails
- Technical safety equipment: platform protection perimeter (ancillary equipment), emergency stop buttons inside the platform, electronic speed control, overload detectors, door opening and lock control, belt-tension sensors and electronic control
- Compliance: EN 81-41:2010 barduva.eu
Screw-Drive and Scissor Residential Lifts
Unique Industry of Thessalonikis, Greece, offers a range of residential lifts, including the machine-room-less ZEFS 836, Apollon 841-842, single scissor lifts and double scissor lifts. The ZEFS 836 has a capacity of 400 kg, 130-mm pit and speeds of 0.12-0.14 m/s with soft starting. The screw drive has a maximum power of 2.2 kW and uses 230-V single-phase power. Its shaft is aluminum, and its hoistway has a flat roof with transparent safety-glass panels. Both “push and run” and “hold to run” controls are inside its car.
The Apollon 841-842 is another enclosed lift, though for short distances. It has a metallic shaft and aluminum doors and can lift 500 kg up to 1.8 m with its dual-piston scissor design. The double scissor lift shares these specifications but does not include shaft and doors. The single scissor lift has the same capacity but only rises 1 m.
Staircase/Wheelchair Lift
Denmark-based Liftup A/S offers the FlexStep stairlift, designed to function both as an ordinary staircase and as a wheelchair lift. The company says its two-in-one solution saves space, compared to installing both a flight of stairs and a separate lift. Its various configuration and installation options are particularly useful where space is tight enough to prevent both a lift and flight of stairs. Suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, it only requires a level floor. A button press initiates the transformation between lift and staircase. Four motors the company calls “intelligent” and “synchronized” are at each corner of the lift for smooth and discreet operation. It is available in standard step widths of 700, 800, 900 and 1,000 mm, with platform lengths up to 1,830 mm. Customizable options include finish material, color, installation configuration and more.
KONE Replaces Elevator Series With Digital System
KONE has released what it calls “the world’s first digital elevator series.” With standard built-in connectivity, the KONE DX Class is designed to be an integral and integrated building platform that offers intuitive, ambient and connected experiences that extend throughout the building. “The ability to adapt and upgrade the elevator experience according to needs now and in the future” is an advantage, the company said.
The new series enables customers to tailor existing and add additional software and services for elevators throughout the lifetime of a building. One partner already announced is iLOQ, which KONE calls an “ecosystem partner.” Focused on digital locking solutions, the Finnish technology company uses an open application programming interface (API) to enable integration with data-sharing and reservation systems, as well as personal customer databases.
KONE uses open APIs to combine physical hardware and digital services. These can be customized according to individual needs and preferences in a way KONE President and CEO Henrik Ehrnrooth called “mass-customizable.” He continued, “New technologies give us opportunities to create an integrated and easily adaptable building experience. As buildings evolve, the elevators can also evolve in ways we have not seen before.” Executive Vice President, New Business Tomio Pihkala added, “We are changing our business profoundly towards a platform business. This means combining products and services over the lifetime of a building, which is very powerful.”
The product uses sustainable materials to meet green- building criteria. It is already available in European markets and will be rolled out to other areas over the next two years, replacing the current KONE elevator range.
Temporary Run Station
The five-position Automation Systems Interconnect, Inc. (ASI) Temporary Run Station with tubular key lock includes two tubular keys attached to a ring at the top of the station for convenient access. It has one normally closed contact for a 40-mm emergency-stop push button with visual indication, and the other buttons use normally open contacts. The contacts are rated at 16 A and use screw clamp wire terminations for easy wiring. The robust housing is made of double-insulated thermoplastic that is shockproof and heat resistant with an IP65, NEMA 4X rating. The laser-engraved push-button switches, along with the slender housing, make it versatile. It also features one green push button labeled with up and down arrows, a white push button labeled “U” and a black push button labeled “D.”
New Controller Options for Hydratec Hydro Packages
Yately, U.K.-based Hydratec offers new controller options for its smart™ hydraulic lift modernization packages. Traditionally shipping with Lester Controls controllers, the modular packages are now available with Kollmorgen and Thames Valley Controls components, and Hydratec plans to add more manufacturers soon. Inclusion of the Bucher iValve remains unchanged.
The company serves as a lift subcontractor assisting lift companies across the U.K. providing full turnkey elevator modernizations that include initial surveying, concept and layout drawings, materials New controller options for the “smart” hydraulic lift line acquisition, installation, project management, testing and more. Its hydro lift modernization service covers control panels; power units; cylinders; and complete systems with variable- voltage, variable-frequency drives from Algi, Blain, Bucher, Hydronic and Hydroware.
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