New Elevator from Hyundai Travels at 21 Meters Per Second Using Carbon-Fiber Belt

Hyundai Elevator announced on May 21, 2020 that it has developed the world's first carbon fiber belt-type elevator that can travel at an incredible 21 meters per second (4133 feet per minute). 

The new elevator uses a carbon fiber belt that weighs only one sixth as much as steel rope commonly used in elevators. 

Steel hoist ropes on a typical passenger elevator weigh about five pounds per foot. As the height of a building increases, the weight of the hoist ropes and the compensation ropes together with the weight of the fully-loaded elevator and counterweight will approach the maximum load allowed by Code for steel hoist ropes. In addition to the stress limitation, the mass of all those components requires excessively large and heavy rotating machinery to accelerate and move the elevator at the speeds required to efficiently serve high floors. To solve this problem, some passengers in super-tall buildings have had to take two elevators, transferring at “sky lobbies” to reach their floor.

This new elevator suspension system has extended the height that an elevator can travel from 1950 feet to beyond 3200 feet, while using 30 percent less electricity.

Other advantages of the carbon fiber belt include its high inherent vibration frequency,  enabling safe operation by avoiding resonances from wind and earthquake motion. In addition, the belts have longer service life and are coated with a polymer material to enhance the coefficient of friction and abrasion resistance.

The elevator has other special components for safety and passenger comfort while ascending or descending at such a high rate of speed. 

When this system is applied to the world’s current tallest building, Burj Khalifa (height = 2716 feet), the time to reach the highest floor from the first floor will be reduced by 20 percent from the current 57 seconds to 46 seconds, without the hassle of a transfer.

Information for this article obtained from the following source:

–    Herh, M. (2020, May 28). New Elevator Travels at 21 Meters per Second. Business Korea