by Brianna Crandall — April 30, 2014—Global electronics company Hitachi Ltd. and Hitachi Elevator (China) Co. announced on April 21 that they will deliver what are being called the “world’s fastest” ultra-high-speed elevators, with a speed of 1,200 m/min (72 km/h), to the 530-meter-tall mixed-use Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre under construction in China, for the full opening of the building in 2016. The elevators will feature technologies that support safe and comfortable elevator operation, in addition to the drive and control technologies needed to attain the world’s fastest speed.
The 1,200 m/min ultra-high-speed elevators will feature both the drive power needed to attain the world’s fastest speed, and also reliable control capabilities. A permanent magnet synchronous motor and a compact traction machine will enable the elevators to travel a shaft height of 440 meters from the 1st to 95th floor in approximately 43 seconds. Further, Hitachi will achieve both high-speed elevator operation and a safe, comfortable ride by using braking equipment with outstanding heat resistance and a single governor that safely bring the elevator to a stop, as well as technologies to prevent lateral vibration and to reduce the sensation of ear blockage caused by air pressure differences.
Hitachi will install a total of 95 elevators at Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre, consisting of two of the world’s fastest elevators as just announced, with a speed of 1,200 m/min; 28 double-deck elevators; ultra-high-speed elevators with a speed of 600 m/min; and other elevators.
The 390,000 sq m Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre is an upscale mixed-use skyscraper that will provide office, hotel and residential space, with 111 above-ground floors and five below-ground floors. A stepped podium with spiraling roof terraces will house hotel function as well as retail, restaurant and cinema space. At a height of 530 meters, it will be the tallest building in Guangzhou, China. Construction of the building is now under way in the city’s Tianhe District, with the aim of fully opening the building in 2016.
The Centre will employ a number of energy efficiency tools in order to reduce its environmental footprint. In addition to its strong multilevel connections to public transportation, these include the use of high-efficiency chillers, façade materials with high thermal properties, solar panels on the podium roof, and heat recovery from the water-cooled chiller condensers. The building is designed to reflect Guangzhou’s growing economic and social prosperity as well as its ambitious green agenda.
Hitachi says it has taken the lead in developing elevator products that satisfy the demands of increasingly taller and larger buildings over the years. In 1968, Hitachi developed Japan’s fastest elevator at the time, with a speed of 300 m/min, for the Kasumigaseki Building, Japan’s first skyscraper. In 2010, Hitachi started operating the 213-meter-tall G1TOWER, considered the world’s tallest elevator research tower, which the company uses for technology development. Hitachi plans to continue working to develop elevators and related equipment offering various forms of added value, in order to support the construction of taller and larger buildings with safe, comfortable and convenient environments around the world.
Hitachi Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 326,000 employees worldwide. Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes infrastructure systems, information and telecommunication systems, power systems, construction machinery, high functional material and components, automotive systems and others.
