The popular U.K. conference returns as a face-to-face event.
by Richard Peters
Looking back at the 13th Lift & Escalator Symposium, held at the Hilton Hotel in Northampton, U.K., on September 21-22, I don’t think I have ever seen so many smiling faces at a lift conference! Post-pandemic, we all really appreciated the chance to meet again in person. Old friendships were renewed, and new ones formed. And not forgetting the purpose of the symposium, we were literally bombarded with reports on new research and developments from across the globe. It is an exciting time to be part of our industry, and there are many new innovations. Events like the Lift & Escalator Symposium give us an excellent overview of what is new and “coming soon.”
This year, we had 26 papers and a panel discussion over two days, making it a packed and fast-moving program. The 15-min time slot for each speaker encouraged everyone to focus on the key innovations, leaving the written paper to speak to the details. This format was popular with delegates; even the most committed conference delegate would prefer not to have a line-by-line exposition on the derivation of equations for traffic analysis, something I have been guilty of in the past.
In case of a recurrence of the pandemic, the event was planned to be hybrid, allowing people to join online or in person. Thankfully, there are no longer restrictions in the U.K., and the COVID-19 risk had dropped to a point that few were concerned about traveling to the venue in Northampton. In any case, we did have some online visitors, including three speakers who were unable to travel. The technicalities of running a Zoom call in a conference room are complex, but the technology worked, including conversations between online speakers and delegates in the room.
The conference was opened by Stefan Kaczmarczyk, who also chaired the first session on “Engineering and Energy.” Matthew Appleby talked about the generation and application of dynamic kinematics (without using any equations!), and Gabriela Roivainen addressed dynamic simulations for lift health diagnosis. Jaakko Kalliomaki took us back in time to 1927 with his paper; it was the year that set the direction of traction lift engineering for a century. Adam Scott and Richard Peters both addressed energy: Scott with his paper, “Energy efficient buildings – Assessing the impact of lifts and escalators,” and Peters with his paper, “Lift energy modelling for green building design.” The need for our industry to consider the environmental impact of our design choices was one of the recurring themes at the conference.
Session 2, titled “IoT and Technology,” was chaired by Philip Hoffer. Kenneth Ong, Paul Clements and Michele Guidotti spoke on the Internet of Things (IoT), which was another recurring theme of the conference. Ong’s paper was titled, “Setting standards on remote monitoring & diagnostic for lifts – a Singapore context,” Clements’ was “Exploring IoT applications for vertical transportation (VT) to tackle challenges in a modern world,” and Guidotti’s was “Lift IoT: Turning sensor data into value.” Miguel Castro reminded us about the importance of Building Information Modelling (BIM) with his paper, “Lift Industry and BIM: a long overdue adopted and typically overlooked project enabler.”
Session 3, “Traffic Analysis and Dispatching,” was chaired by Graham Barker. For those of us heavily engaged in this topic, the symposium is where we pour over every paper and then discuss them enthusiastically in groups during the breaks; there was plenty to discuss in 2022! Lutfi Al-Sharif presented on enhancing the I-S-P method (Inverse Stops-Passengers) using the Monte Carlo Simulation method, and Jonathan Beebe on global dispatcher interface – initial prototype design. Aitor Arrieta discussed design-operation continuum methods for traffic master; Diana Andrei addressed impact of the load-area bypass feature on passenger service level; and finally, Gina Barney spoke to the “Rated load and maximum available car area – A proposal to revise EN81-20, table 6.”
Session 4, the final of Day 1, was titled “Maintenance” and chaired by Nick Mellor. The session picked up the IoT theme and related technologies in the context of maintenance and repair. Stefan Kaczmarczyk presented on vibration signature and the application of intelligent pattern recognition in detection and classification of damage in automatic power operated lift doors, while Matti Lin spoke on system simulation for fault analysis of lift doors. Rory Smith spoke on the effect of artificial intelligence on service operations and service personnel.
The conference dinner followed, with a fine three-course meal and wine. The conversation continued into the evening in the bar.
Day 2 began with session 5, “Planning & Design,” chaired by Richard Peters. It began with an invited speaker, Marja-Liisa Siikonen, presenting an overview her new book, People Flow in Buildings. This major piece of work shares much of Siikonen’s extensive experience. We learnt from the Q&A that her book is now available on Amazon. Continuing the session, we had papers from Janne Sorsa on new evidence on lift passenger demand in high-rise office buildings; Kasinadh Karra on the component based modular elevator; and Phil Pearson on the technical challenges involved in lifting 40 Tonne trucks using rigid chain technology in a confined space.
A highlight for many was session 6, a panel discussion, chaired by Adam Scott titled, “Post-COVID: the impact on building and vertical transportation design.” Neil Pennell gave us the thinking behind the British Council of Office’s (BCO) recent position paper as they seek to reflect on the changing use of offices following the pandemic. More insights were provided by the other panelists, Len Halsey, Rory Smith and Jochem Wit, as they considered the implications of the pandemic on current requirements and the uncertainty of what will happen in the future.
The final session was chaired by David Cooper and titled, “Safety.” Daniel Meekin spoke on investigation into the closing force of passenger/goods lift automatic power operated doors and recommendations to reduce the risk of injury to lift users, and Mateusz Gizicki on the investigation of efficacy and fire propagation thwarting characteristics of fire barrier in the lift industry applications. Returning to the IoT theme, Andrew Gorin spoke on IoT safety predictive monitoring of lift operations, shafts and buildings. Finally, there were papers from Qingping Guo on disinfection efficacy analysis of an Ultraviolet-C (UVC) device for escalator handrails, and Nick Mellor on challenges to drafting a standard for the evacuation of disabled people using lifts.
The conference was closed by co-chairs, Stefan Kaczmarczyk and Richard Peters, who thanked the Lift & Escalator Symposium Trust trustees, scientific committee, speakers and delegates for all their efforts, which make this event so successful.
The full proceedings are available to download from Lift & Escalator Symposium. The papers and videos will also be added to The Lift and Escalator Library, the charity’s fast-growing library of lift (elevator) and escalator technology research papers and documents.
The 14th Lift & Escalator Technologies Symposium will take place on September 20-21, 2023. Speakers are invited to submit abstracts at Lift & Escalator Symposium website.
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