Contracts and Technology for Marine Elevators

Demand for advanced technology and installation practices is rising as the size of cruise ships and ferries continues to grow and more services and attractions are added to them. Italy-based Schindler Marine’s solution is its Personal Occupant Requirement Terminal system, which it has been actively marketing to the passenger shipping sector. Passenger Ship Technology states “extensive tests have taken place on board a number of vessels. However, the company has yet to announce a full-scale installation on board a ship.” It adds that it has seen growth in the sector, equipping six new ships in six different shipyards in 2016 with more than 160 elevators. In 2017, the company plans to deliver elevator products for two new Viking ships, a new MSC Cruises cruise liner, and vessels being built for Carnival, Holland America, Costa Crocieri, Royal Caribbean and Saga.

 KONE’s Marine Solutions division is offering competing technology with various combinations of operating modes, including boarding, dining, gangway and medical priority modes. It can also provide controls connected to the operation of lift shaft lighting and regenerative drives to enhance energy savings. For traffic control, it is supplying its KONE Group Controller (KGC), designed to improve handling capacity and shorten waiting intervals by automatically handling traffic peaks on certain decks by selecting specific elevators within a group for automatic boarding and peak traffic operations. KGC can improve service by compiling statistics on average passenger traffic on each floor in both directions. It uses these statistics to forecast daily traffic for each 15-min. period during the day.

 KONE’s advanced guidance and software can be fully integrated into ships’ networks and other key systems. It is being installed on Celebrity’s Celebrity Edge, MSC’s MSC Vista, Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas, Dream Cruises’ Genting Dream and other new ships for Virgin Voyages, Norwegian and TUI Cruises. 

Netherlands-based Lift Emotion (ELEVATOR WORLD, November 2015), which focuses on the ferry and superyacht segment, has also recently introduced new technology. An upgrade to its lower-rise elevators includes “a special inverter” on the hydraulic power packs, which the company states results in a 50% reduction in power consumption. It is also said to improve ride and decrease noise.

 Lift Emotion has been supplying elevators for several new ferries and superyachts over the past year. The company has reportedly strengthened its position in the latter segment by developing a new procedure to greatly save time installing panoramic elevators. It involves preassembling the lift at its own facilities in Meppel. It has also secured projects in Asia and Europe, delivered elevators for several Norwegian ferries and has a major refit in progress at a U.S. shipyard involving three elevators with inverter drives.