Maglevators
Up yer shaft:
The interesting part here is the enormous impact it will have on high-rise design. One of the reasons for the staggered bank arrangement found in most 40+ floor high-rise buildings, (where you have to disembark the car on a mid floor, switch elevators, and continue up), is cable weight. The car must carry not only its rated weight, but also the weight of all that cabling. Thus, you must have multiple elevator banks when you exceed the weight limit. It's one of the reasons most high-rise office structures are designed around a central core, and it limits such architecture enormously.
By eliminating the cables, (don't worry; there are several safety systems completely independent of the cabling, even in current elevators), you effectively remove the design restrictions imposed by building height. This frees up the architect to move away from a core-based or side-lift system, and place the shaft anywhere within the building. It also means the elevator is not restricted to vertical movement. You could have horizontal shafts, diagonal shafts... In other words, a turbolift.
"Bridge."
Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corp. will employ so-called maglev technology -- capable of suspending objects in mid-air through the combination of magnetic attraction and repulsion -- to control the lifts, it said in a statement.
The interesting part here is the enormous impact it will have on high-rise design. One of the reasons for the staggered bank arrangement found in most 40+ floor high-rise buildings, (where you have to disembark the car on a mid floor, switch elevators, and continue up), is cable weight. The car must carry not only its rated weight, but also the weight of all that cabling. Thus, you must have multiple elevator banks when you exceed the weight limit. It's one of the reasons most high-rise office structures are designed around a central core, and it limits such architecture enormously.
By eliminating the cables, (don't worry; there are several safety systems completely independent of the cabling, even in current elevators), you effectively remove the design restrictions imposed by building height. This frees up the architect to move away from a core-based or side-lift system, and place the shaft anywhere within the building. It also means the elevator is not restricted to vertical movement. You could have horizontal shafts, diagonal shafts... In other words, a turbolift.
"Bridge."
posted by Jar(egg)head at 14:48
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home