LIFT/ELEVATORS

Module III: Elevators (Lifts) 08 Hours

• Brief history, Systems of Elevators like Traction and Hydraulic.

• Types of Lifts- Passenger, Hospital, Goods, Dumb Waiter and Double-Decker.
• Sky lobby, Lift lobby and Lift interiors.
• Elevatoring a building: Environmental considerations i.e., location in building, serving floors, grouping, size,
shape of passenger car and door arrangements.
• Service requirements, Quality and Quantity of service, time, passenger handling capacity, space and physical
requirements, machine room spaces and their typical layout.
• Fire safety measures in Lifts, Building Management Systems-Interface for Lifts.

Self Learning Topic: To study aesthetical aspects of designing Elevators (Lifts) in Commercial buildings.
Principle_of_hydraulic_lift.mp4
Basic terminologies
• Elevator car : That part of an elevator that includes
the platform, enclosure, car frame, and door.
• Machine beam : A steel beam, positioned directly over
the elevator in the machine room and is used to support
elevator equipment.
• Machine room : This usually located at the top of the
shaft and accommodates the winding machine, etc.
• Pit : That part of an elevator shaft that extends from
the threshold level of the lowest landing door down to
the floor at the very bottom of the shaft.
• Shaft : A hoist way through which one or more elevator
cars may travel.
• Counterweight or balance-weight. A unit, consisting of
steel weights, which counter balance the weight of the
car and a portion of the load, and to which the
suspension ropes are attached.
 Usage
TYPES OF LIFTS Passenger

Goods Dumbwaiter Hospital Lift

Passenger Lift : A lift designed for the transport of passengers. Passenger elevator is
designed to move people between floors of a building. Their capacity is related to available
floor space. Upto 8-10 floors these operate at 1m/s and above 10 floors the speed starts at
2.5 m/s to 10 m/s.
• Goods Lift : A lift designed primarily for the transport of goods but which may carry a lift
attendant or other person necessary for the unloading and loading of goods.

• Service Lift (Dumb-Waiter) : A lift with a car which moves in guides in a vertical direction;
has net floor area of 1 m2, total inside height of 1.25 m; and capacity not exceeding 250
kg; and is exclusively used for carrying materials and shall not carry any person.

• Hospital Lift : A lift normally installed in a hospital/dispensary/clinic and designed to

accommodate one number bed/stretcher along its depth, with sufficient space around to
carry a minimum of three attendants in addition to the lift operator.
Hospital lifts
Goods/Freight lifts
•Used to transport heavy goods but depends on types of good transported.
• Usually used in shopping complex, airports, hotels, warehouse.
DUMB WAITERS
1. Closed Lift (typical type)
2. Open Lift (bubble type)

Open Lift (bubble type) Closed Lift (typical type)

The shuttle elevator
moves between the lobby
floors at high speed. To
travel to their destination
floor, passengers transfer
to a local elevator on a
lobby floor. By linking high
capacity/high speed
shuttle elevators with
local elevators, allows for
efficient travel within a
high-rise building
Lift lobby
lift lobby means a space from which people directly entered a lift car(s) and into which
people directly enter upon exiting a lift car(s)

Dimensions of lifts on the basis lift

arrangement
Lifts, or elevators, should be arranged around
a series of design factors that include: the
type of occupancy, dimensions, speed and
quantity of traffic, total vertical distance to be
traveled, and the desired time and speed of
travel.
In addition to that, there are a few more
important factors to be considered, namely:
safety, quality, aesthetics, the capacity during
peak times, and the type of building in which
the elevator is to be installed. These lifts have a low-capacity layout. Widely used in
buildings with limited load, two lift elevator banks are ideal
A common residential lift is usually 3’ wide by for offices with floor areas around 90,000 sq. ft. or 8,361 sq.
4’ deep or 0.91 x 1.22 m in dimensions. The m., hotels with 150 rooms, and housing projects with 180
door width is usually 36 inches or 0.91 m. units.
On the other hand, for office buildings, lifts Two lift elevator banks have typical widths of 18’ or 5.5 m
are typically 6’ wide by 5’ deep or 1.83 x 1.53 and depths of 18’6” or 5.6 m which is a combination of a
m in dimensions. The door width is typically single row of lifts and an adjacent waiting area with a
4’ wide or 1.22 m. clearance width (lobby) of 10’/3 m, or 1.5 x car depths
Therefore, these have an overall area of around 333 sq. ft. or
31 sq. m.
Source: www.planndesign.com
 Common Lift Lobby all
four units

Private Lift Lobby For

Added security

Source: www.ioiproperties.com/Gems Residences

Lift interiors

For extra reading: https://www.archdaily.com/961996/reinventing-the-

platform-lift-as-a-design-statement-for-accessibility-at-home-aritco
Design details to be followed for elevators

• The control panel is usually mounted at a

minimum distance of 0.50 m from the
corner to be conveniently accessible for
wheelchair users. It should be mounted
0.90 m to 1.20 m above the floor level.
• Illuminated control buttons , numerals
on the floor select buttons will be
embossed to be easily identifiable for
visually impaired

• Tactile numerals should be placed on

both sides of door jams 1.50 m high for
visually impaired people to identify the
floor level

• Audio and visual signals should be provided to help visually impaired and hearing
impaired respectively identify the number of the floor reached.
• The floor of the elevator and the area in front should have a non-skid resilient surface

• The colour of the door should contrast with the surrounding surface so as to be easily
distinguishable by persons with visual impairment
 LIFT DOOR
• Lift car is equipped with its own door (sliding type).
• Security measure – resist the movement as long as the door is still
open.
• Self closing within a certain time frame.
• 2 types of sliding door :
1. Opened automatically when the lift stops at
every level.
2. Swing door – will open when the lift stopped
at the lobby.

GUARD RAIL
• Work to keep the car and the counterweight.
• Mounted on both sides of the lift shaft which is attached to the wheel
of the car.
• A safety device to hold the lift from crashing down if the rope break.
BUFFER
• To absorb the impact of the lift car when it fell.
• Placed in a room called the lift pit.
•Location of Lifts: It is recommended
that the walking distance between the
entrance or office and the lift group
should not be greater than 6Om,
• preferably this should be kept to 45m
maximum.

•When lifts are arranged in a group it is

recommended that all the lifts in that
should serve the same floors

Noncentralized elevators mean additional walking

time
45M -60M

ENT A distance of 150 ft (45 m) should be the maximum

distance people have to walk to an elevator on any
floor.
Source: frozenmusicstudio.wordpress.com
Serving Floors.

All elevators in a group should serve the same

floors. This is a commonsense rule that is often
violated for false economy.

If, for example, only one car out of a group of

three serves the basement, people wishing to
go to the basement from an upper floor have
only one chance out of three that the next
elevator that comes along will take them to the
basement. Conversely, people in the basement
must wait three times longer for elevator
service as upper-floor passengers.

Ideally, all cars should serve the basement,

but if not, a special shuttle elevator must be
considered, to run only between the main
floor and the basement.
Designing and Planning Considerations:
• In larger, multistory buildings it is usual to locate the lifts at a central pedestrian
circulation point.
• Lobbies in front of lift shaft entrances must be designed and arranged.
• For a lobby in front of a single lift, the available min depth between the wall of the lift
shaft door and the opposite wall, measured in the direction of the lift car must be at
least the same as the depth of the lift car itself.
• The building and its function dictate the basic type of lifts which need to be provided.
• Lifts are mechanical installations which are required to have a long service life.

Basic Regulations of Choice the kind of Vertical Communication are:

• Number of Storey.
• Distance between floors.
• Intensive use of elevator in each floor.
• Location of the building.
• Number of users in rush hours.
• Services in the building.
a) Separated elevators reduce transportation (b) Grouped elevators avoid passenger
efficiency. indecision and improve service.
 Properly zoned and grouped elevators

(c) Grouped elevators afford continuity (d) Separated elevators can deny service
of service.
Source: IS 14665 (Part `2/Set I) : 2000
Two-car arrangements: Three-car arrangements:
(a) preferred, (a) preferred,
(b) wrong. (b) acceptable
 Four-car arrangements: Six-car arrangements:
(a) preferred, (a) preferred,
(b) (b) acceptable. (b) (b) acceptable.
Grouping of elevators
Unique elevator core arrangements: (a) angle, (b) alcoved, (c) circular.
Quantity of Service
The quantity of service is best reflected by the number of passengers moved to their destination. This is
measured considering the number of passengers handled during five minutes each of the peak periods of the
day.
This is also known as the handling capacity.
Handling capacity is calculated by the following formula:-

H= (300 x Q x 100) / T x P
Where,
H= Handling capacity as the percentage of peak population
handled during 5 minutes,
Q= Average number of passengers carried in a car (depends
on the dimensions of the car),
T= Waiting interval, and
P= Total population to be handled
Quality of service
Unlike quantity, the quality of service is measured in the interval between the arrivals. It reflects the
passenger waiting time for various floors and is also called waiting interval.
Here is a table representing the quality of service or waiting interval:-

Time taken Quality of service

20-25 seconds Excellent

30-35 seconds Good

35-40 seconds Fair

40-45 seconds Poor

Over 45 seconds Unsatisfactory

 Machine room-less (MRL) elevators
• 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 elevator.
• Benefits
• Can operate at faster speeds than hydraulics but not normal traction
• Creates more usable space
 Use less energy (70-80% less than hydraulic elevators)
 Uses no oil
 Slightly lower cost than other elevators
 Units.
FIREMAN'S LIFT

•For buildings having height of 15m or more

described below :
•Lift car floor area of not less than 1.44 sq.m
•Loading capacity of not less than 544 kg (8
persons).
•Lift landing doors shall have minimum fire
resistance of two hours.
•The lift speed shall be 1.0 m/s or more
•Reachable time to the top floor from the ground (or
entrance) floor within 60 seconds.
 ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES OF ELEVATOR

O Easier for consumer to use it at office, hospital, shopping mall and etc.
O Provide comfortable to consumers.
O Can carry heavy things.
O Useful for emergency which is lift for fire extinguisher is provided.
O For business interests that require a lot of customers.

O Elevators require frequent maintenance

O high cost of energy to operate the elevator, the cost of the equipment
O risk of contamination from a hydraulic fluid spill from the hydraulic tank and
the noise and slow operating speeds.