by Shane Henson — June 24, 2013—KONE, a Finnish manufacturer of modern elevators and escalators for buildings worldwide, announced a new high-rise elevator technology this month that it says is set to break industry limits and enable future elevator travel heights of one kilometer—twice the distance currently feasible.
The KONE UltraRope is a completely new hoisting technology that eliminates the disadvantages of conventional steel rope and opens up a world of possibilities in high-rise building design—an important consideration as urbanization brings increasing numbers of people to cities, KONE notes.
Comprised of a carbon fiber core and a unique high-friction coating, KONE UltraRope is extremely light, meaning elevator energy consumption in high-rise buildings can be cut significantly, KONE notes. The drop in rope weight means a dramatic reduction in elevator moving masses—the weight of everything that moves when an elevator travels up or down, including the hoisting ropes, compensating ropes, counterweight, elevator car, and passenger load. Due to the significant impact of ropes on the overall weight of elevator moving masses, the benefits of KONE UltraRope increase exponentially as travel distance grows.
According to KONE, its UltraRope is also extremely strong and highly resistant to wear and abrasion. Elevator downtime caused by building sway is also reduced as carbon fiber resonates at a completely different frequency to steel and most other building materials. The company says that UltraRope also has an exceptionally long lifetime—at least twice that of conventional steel rope—and thanks to the special coating, no lubrication is required in maintaining it, enabling further cuts in environmental impact.
KONE expects there to be a huge market for the KONE UltraRope now and in the years to come. There are currently some 3,000 buildings in the world that could benefit from modernization with KONE UltraRope, the company says. Also, building upwards is seen as a sustainable urban solution for crowded cities, and the number of tall buildings built around the globe has increased rapidly in recent years. Nearly 600 buildings of 200 meters or more are currently under construction or planned to be built over the next few years, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
