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Vacuum-Controlled Elevator Developed
Aenox writes "Vacuum Elevators of Florida have released a one-man elevator system that easily slots into buildings. It has gone on sale in the U.S. for around $20,000 and uses only electricity to power vaccum-inducing suction turbines that can lift 204Kg several floors up. They claim it provides a smooth ride but from the video it looks like it could use some oil."
But O'Connor adds that a series of mechanical breaks will activate should there be a sudden loss of pressure, to prevent the capsule falling.
I'm glad to see this because this was my first thought on watching the video. I can imagine all sorts of overly dramatic Hollywood type scenarios...... Cut the power to the building.....drama ensues. Or, a couple of well placed bullets into the side of the plexiglas causing a sudden implosion and dramatic falling of the lift. Also, one would want to ensure there are no leaks from the capsule to the inside of the lift tube. That sort of thing could play havoc on your eardrums, sinuses and eustachian tubes. Ask anyone who has been in a plane when they open a cargo door before completely equalizing the pressure in the cabin...... Wow, talk about uncomfortable.
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All the pneumatic pumps I've used are maddeningly noisy. I hope this one's an exception.
for my Grandmother whose mobility was starting to wane. It was powered by water pressure (from a regular tap (faucet)) on the way up with a valve controlling the water release for a smooth ride down. I have always wondered how it was able to provide enough lift (it still puzzles me today). Regular water pressure? I must take my camera next time I venture there. He's a metal-worker by trade (specifically I'm not sure) so the quality of the structure is first class.
SOmething's really odd here -- the people who would most need this are folks who are in wheelchairs. And yet the tube is clearly too narrow for any sort of handicapped person. Why invent a freaking elevator for the people who don't need one? Do they have a handicapped version? Looking at the size of the capsule, I doubt a person with arm braces could fit in there. It seems really cruel to make an easy-to-install elevator that won't fit the people who need it.
I was thinking the exact same thing. This thing would be killer at museums and other open floors. It seems portable enough to just rent one or two to install in cases of increased traffic at certain venues.
As Seen On TV's? Come back!!!
While still a clever design, this is a giant step backwards because it does not provide positive position control. Vacumn just provides a force, not a means of controlling position. From the video it looked like he had to tweak the elevator position before he could open the door.
As for opening the door above the car while it's running, remember there is a vacumn holding the door shut with at least a few hundred lbf.
It would seem to me that there's a limit to the amount of vacuum you can get above an elevator, but no limit in the pressure you could generate below it. I mean, if the elevator is 4 feet across, then the absolute theoretical limit of wieght that could be pulled up by suction (assuming standard sea-level pressure) would be...
interesting. Google can't parse:
(pi * ((inches in 1 foot * 2)^2) * psi in 1 atm) / lbs in 1 ton
but substituting in values, you get:
(pi * ((12 * 2)^2) * 14.6959488) / 2000 = 13.2965812
OK. I guess that's not so very strange after all. In a 4 foot wide elevator, you can lift 13 tons with a hard vacuum above it. Damn. 15psi sure does add up quick.
Pound! Bang! Bin! Bash! is this a shell script or a Batman comic?
You're absolutely correct. One of the major trends right now in urban housing is for a developer to buy up a small section of older 1-story homes in a decent part of a downtown area, then knock those homes down and replace them with 4-story townhomes. Most of these townhomes are ~2,500 sq. ft. affairs, but the number of stairs has got to affect their ability to sell.
During my time working for astructured wiring subcontractor, I saw several of these places setup with small elevators, but the numbers I usually heard tossed about were in the $80,000 to $100,000 range. A $20,000 elevator would definitely have a market not just at a personal level, but with many of those developers willing to make it a standard feature in order to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Do'h just realised if there was low pressure above and high pressure below, the passenger wouldn't be able to breath. Also, didn't lifts with hand doors die in the 50's? fitting a sliding door to that sucker doesn't sound like an easy task. So again, why the fuck would anyone want this?
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This elevator looks too small to accomodate a wheel chair. So, the only people who can use it are those who don't need it.
For the price of this elevator, you could install a full size elevator. I have used one elevator that I am told cost $30,000 to install and that included boring a vertical shaft and horizontal tunnel through the side of a mountain. For considerably less cost, you could build a single person elevator.
They claim that the elevator saves energy because it uses gravity on the descent. What they don't tell you is that it uses more than twice as much energy on the way up as a similarly sized elevator using the conventional counterweight design. A counterweight elevator only has to raise the weight of the occupants since the weight of the car is balanced out by the counterweight. Indeed, the counterweight might be as much as the weight of the car plus maximum occupancy load, in which case the elevator needs to use power to lower the car and only needs to release the brakes and overcome friction to raise. Futher, the inefficency of the vacuum pump could be considerable.
A hydraulic elevator of the size shown could also have been constructed using a cable or chain over a piston that travels half the distance as the elevator car (same design as used on many forklifts). This would be simpler, more reliable, and avoid the dynamic load problem described below. The design could be as compact and "portable" as the vacuum elevator.
Vacuum induced lift is a constant force rather than constant displacement technology. This is a very serious problem. When you step off the car, you can expect it to spring upwards. They probably hide this serious problem by making an elevator that can only serve two floors. At the top floor, you drive into a hard stop. At the bottom floor, you do not allow the door to open until the vacuum cylinder is fully vented. On a multifloor design, you could have a mechanical lock that engages before the door opens but then when the lock released there would be a sudden jolt if the passenger was not the same weight as the previous passenger (if any).
The large seals required and the fact that they must operate past doorways (unlike a hydraulic lift) will lead to significant maintenence problems.
This product looks to be pure gimmick. The technology used and other aspects of the design are totally inappropriate to the task.