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Three research groups at the UPC develop the technology for sustainable elevators
The elevators of the future should be zero-energy systems that incorporate the concept of eco-design and are fully interconnected with the outside world, as well as being safer, more intelligent and more accessible than present-day elevators.
The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has taken part in developing these elevators of the future through Net0lift, a CENIT project led by the Orona Group that will ensure that Spain continues to be the leader in the sector.
Spain is Europe’s leading elevator and elevator component manufacturer and is second in the world after China. This fact has a direct bearing on Net0lift, a research project for developing highly sustainable lifting systems (elevators, platforms, moving walkways and urban mobility systems), a key premise in a highly competitive, expanding market.
Classed as a strategically important team-based industrial research project that will have far-reaching scientific and technical repercussions, the Net0lift project, with a total budget of 12 million euros, falls within the framework of a program run by the National Strategic Consortia for Technical Research (CENIT).
Net0lift is a four-year project in which businesses and universities from 10 autonomous communities are involved. The collaboration will contribute to improving the technological foothold of Spain’s production network.
Three of the UPC’s research groups are taking part in the Net0lift project. The Advanced Control Systems (SAC) unit, whose head is Joseba Quevado, is working on intelligent systems able to detect failures in elevator systems, diagnose the cause and automatically find alternatives. The Industrial Equipment Design Center (CDEI), directed by the professor Carles Riba, is working on new concepts for reducing the complexity (size, weight, safety) of elevator doors from a building design perspective. Finally, the Structural Integrity and Materials Reliability Center (CIEFMA), whose project manager is Antonio Mateo García, is researching new materials to make elevator doors that are more resistant, but at the same time, lighter. It is thus looking into new materials that can replace those currently used, such as new high-strength steel, magnesium alloys and other compound and hybrid materials. A clearly emerging trend is to use high-strength steel, following in the footsteps of the automobile sector.
Net0lift is researching technologies that will make it possible to develop elevation systems in the future that are environmentally, socially and financially sustainable, and that can be installed in both new buildings and already existing ones. Net0lift views such issues as energy efficiency and accessibility as the root to society actively engaging in its commitment to sustainable development.
Current vertical mobility solutions pose a number of serious problems. The full integration of the new possibilities afforded by information and communication technologies will therefore be fundamental to elevation systems. Another area that is well worth researching concerns a new concept in the use of elevators as the optimum solution for evacuating buildings in potential situations of risk. The incorporation of environmental intelligence to elevation systems should also be considered, as should the design of user-friendly environments that overcome the fear associated with this mode of transport.
It is believed that if specific technological advances are not made in this sector in the future, vertical elevation will continue to be a high energy consumer. Elevators currently account for around 3% of a building’s energy consumption. Another matter that must be addressed is how to use them to evacuate the disabled in the case of an emergency. Research into low-cost solutions is also coming to the fore as smaller elevators take up less usable floor area and require less power to run.
Net0lift, led by ORONA, is a multidisciplinary consortium made up of 12 companies with complementary business activities, which will create veritable synergies between their lines of research.
The companies that make up Net0lift are manufacturers of full elevator systems (Orona, Electra Vitoria); participants in the elevator business value chain (Savera, Fermator, Emesa, Ikor, Lancor, Pecrés); and other concerns in sectors such as automobiles (Antolín), energy (Cegasa), architecture (Ah Associats) and composite materials (Abeki).
These companies are given support by the research carried out by the universities and technology centers that are taking part in the development of Net0lift, which is considered to be a high added value project.
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