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The Future Is NowBy Sally Wilk

The wave of the future, saysShannon Knall, manager of internationalpublic relations for Otis ElevatorCompany, is a move towards creatingbuildings in which the machine room iseliminated. Building OperatingManagement, October 1, 2000

W. John Reinartz of Reynolds &Reynolds Electronics, Inc. agrees. Herewe are eight years later and it appearsthat it is happening.

Reynolds & Reynolds Electronics,Inc. was founded in 1989 and isrecognized today as the leading supplierof emergency return systems to theelevator industry. Until seven years ago,Reynolds & Reynolds (R&R)concentrated their efforts on thehydraulic market. W. John Reinartzjoined Reynolds & Reynolds in Januaryof 2001 as their Vice President of Sales.He accepted the position of President inlate 2002 and took the company in a newdirection. Market research indicated thatthe elevator controller market wasforecasting increased sales of tractionelevators. R&R paralleled the directionby designing new products for thetraction market.Going Green

This is a historic time for the UnitedStates and for the world. The world isgoing green. The green movement iswell underway and many companies areahead of the curve. These companiesinclude, but are not limited to, KONE,Otis, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp andReynolds & Reynolds.

While KONE still provides itshydraulic customers with an outsourcedsolution, KONE believes the future is inMachine Room-Less, gearless

technology for low to mid risebuildings. KONE states that it wasthe first elevator escalator company tointroduce the Machine Room-Lessconcept to the industry and to thisday, has installed over 300,000worldwide.

KONES EcoDisc in aMachine Room-Less Application

Otis went green as early as 1997.In an Otis Elevator press release andin the August 19, 1997 edition of TheHartford Courant News, Otisannounced that it would supplyelevators . . . for the . . . Conde NastBuilding at 4 Times Square . . . inNew York City. Otis won thecontract in part on its approach to theenvironment, health and safety . . . .This will be the first installation in theUnited States of high-speed elevatorswith AC (alternating current) variablefrequency drives, [said Otis VicePresident Ray Moncini.] Thesedrives consume less energy andoperate more cleanly than traditionalDC elevator drive systems. AC-powered elevators improve indoor airquality, Otis [said.] Since their motorgenerators dont use carbonlessbrushes, they dont produce carbondust particles that can infiltrate

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heating, ventilating and airconditioning systems.

Schindlers SPEC-DATA Sheetfor the 400A Traction ElevatorSystem states that the elevatorreduces the amount of vertical andhorizontal building space required . . .. The 400A consumes 30% lessenergy than traditional gearedmodels and is eco-friendly.

According to the US GreenBuilding Council, The Leadership inEnergy and Environmental Design(LEED) Green Building RatingSystem encourages and acceleratesglobal adoption of sustainable greenbuilding and development practicesthrough the creation andimplementation of universallyunderstood and accepted tools andperformance criteria. LEED is athird-party certification programand the nationally acceptedbenchmark for the design,construction and operation of highperformance green buildings.ThyssenKrupp is a proud member ofthe US Green Building Council.

Reynolds & ReynoldsElectronics, Inc. has alwaysencouraged elevator OEMs to usebattery backup as a method forpassenger rescue as opposed to themore expensive and lessenvironmentally friendly dieselgenerator solution.Keeping Up With Technology

The building market expects thatan elevator will have the capability ofpreventing passenger entrapment inthe event of a power outage. For thepast twenty years, elevator contractorshave offered battery backup units(BBU) to their hydraulic elevatorcustomers. However, contractorswere not able to offer BBU fortraction elevators because these unitsdid not exist.

In 2002, Reynolds & ReynoldsElectronics began designing the TractionPowervator, an Emergency RescueUnit designed specifically for tractionelevator systems. Up until the late 1990s,BBU for traction was not feasiblebecause the batteries could not supportthe high power draw required by thelarger DC, AC and SCR motorsassociated with early traction elevatorsystems.

When OEMs began adopting theVVVF motor technology, R&Rrecognized that it was possible to designan emergency rescue unit that tookadvantage of the decreased power drawof the VVVF. The challenge was tocreate an emergency battery backup unitdesigned for traction elevators thatwould work with the physics of theelevator to enable the elevator controlsystem to move the elevator car to thenext available floor (up or down,depending on the weight of the carversus the counterweight) at InspectionSpeed and open the elevator doors inorder to prevent passengers from beingtrapped inside. Reynolds & Reynoldswas awarded CSA certification for theirnow patented innovation.

T-REX Project Parking Garage

The first OEM to marry thistechnology with their elevator systemwas KONE on their T-REX Projectin July of 2003 as specified by LerchBates. T-REX was a TransportationExpansion Project that transformedthe way people in the metro Denverarea traveled along the southeastcorridor of Interstates 25 and 225.The project used a multimodaltransportation approach to addresssome of Denvers traffic problemsand was referred to as the nextgeneration of transportation projectson the www.trexproject.com website.

Reynolds &Reynolds ElectronicsTraction Powervator

The Future Is NowToday, many elevator consultant

specifications call for a battery backupunit for traction elevators. Mostindependent controller manufacturershave investigated, purchased and/ortested traction battery backup systemsfor their controllers. Several of themajor elevator OEMs are offeringbattery backup as an optional featurefor their traction elevators. It seemsthat Shannon Knall of Otis was rightin 2001 when she said, The wave ofthe future is a move towards creatingbuildings in which the machine roomis eliminated. Welcome to thefuture.