Over the years lifts have evolved to keep up with the demands placed upon them, for example, using carbon fibre ropes and more durable machinery. However, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are changing lifts beyond simply moving people up and down buildings with speed and comfort. Now, smart elevators are collecting data, monitoring traffic flows, and decreasing their own downtime.
The global tier 1 lift companies have put millions of pounds into research and development for IoT solutions for their own elevators and escalators that monitor down to component level – for example, the temperature of a door operator motor – and plug directly into a building management controller to display any faults that occur.
They also have systems for third-party units, but these don’t connect directly into a controller, nor do they give as much information. However, third-party systems are beginning to be brought on to the market.
Paul Clements, associate at D2E International VT Consultants, remarks: “They are typically IT or tech-based companies that provide a standalone device that simply needs power and internet in order to sit on top of any lift and give consistent access to data.”
OPTIMISATION
IoT technologies give new opportunities to observe, analyse and react to operational information in a more efficient manner. The main benefits of IoT elevator solutions include improving safety, facilitating time-consuming and cost-saving upgrades, decreasing waiting periods for users, providing emergency response, diagnosing problems remotely, and offering power-efficiency gains.
Elevator-servicing companies benefit from better effectiveness of their servicing activities, and facility managers benefit not only from the positive outcomes of that efficiency, but they also get data visibility – via their dashboard – that allows them to determine the performance of the servicing company as well as the elevator itself.
Clements adds: “Typically, you get a call-out on a lift that has no data, and the lift company attends normally within a couple of hours. They fix the lift and fill out a worksheet. Often, the tenants and facilities management teams do not understand what the problem was or if it’s a reoccurring problem.”
With IoT packages, elevator operators have their own dashboard and logins and can see which lifts are out of service, if there’s a fault or if there’s any information that has been provided by operatives; for example, what is believed to have caused the fault and whether a replacement part has been ordered.
“Sometimes call-outs can require more than one person,” Clements explains. “Quite often what happens is one person will turn up, realise it’s a two-man job, and then have to leave and come back with two people, which is wasted time for everyone. So, if they’ve got some key information up front, they know to not just send one person but two.”
Another key benefit for the elevator contractors is eliminating ‘no fault found’ call-outs. If an elevator doesn’t respond to someone on site, a lift contractor is called out to fix it. But, often, the elevator is running when they get there. IoT systems provide the information for contractors to tell whether the elevator is running, and some can even place calls on the unit virtually to see if it responds. They can also isolate or reset the elevator remotely rather than travelling to the site needlessly.
Similar to building management systems, one of the main uses of IoT in smart elevator solutions is to monitor operating conditions by gathering crucial data, such as load weighing, temperature, light, crucial safety circuits, number of daily trips, waiting times, trends in peak times and analysis of ride (accelerations, jerking, vibrations).
Using this data, operators of an elevator management system can make informed operational decisions on finishing times, large meetings or conferences, or scheduling around train arrival times.
FOR EXAMPLE
Swiss sensor company Cedes Group is preparing to launch its own suite of IoT enabled sensors for the elevator industry.
Michele Guidotti, senior product manager, explains: “Our approach is not to add new sensors, but to exploit the maximum from the existing sensor and elevator architecture. I’m not saying that adding sensors doesn’t add value, and of course the more data sources you have the better, but we believe that the best thing is to enable and really bring out all the data that’s already there.”
Cedes currently provides sensors for elevator systems and will soon offer upgraded component replacement that is IoT-enabled, which provides the capability to bring data directly into predictive maintenance platforms.
VP, technical projects and technical advisor Patrick Bass adds: “Now you can upgrade any elevator. You don’t have to do major modernisation on an elevator on which you’ve put a predictive maintenance platform or done a major control system change. Now you replace one or two components, and you are in place to have a data-driven performance system giving you feedback. That’s the game-changer with regards to the Cedes approach that hasn’t happened so far in the industry.”
In the past two years there has been a shift in the way buildings are used, especially office buildings with more people working from home all or part of the week.
Says Clements: “Studies have found that there’s relatively low traffic on Mondays and Fridays compared to before COVID. If you know how the building operates via IoT, you can create a plan where some of the lifts are isolated in non-busy periods.”
He adds there’s even been research conducted earlier this year in the US where tall buildings can be equipped with robots that move bags of sand into elevators at times during the day when they are not in use – determined by IoT devices. These elevators then efficiently move the sand around the building and, using the elevators’ regenerative drives, generate energy that can then be held on site. This helps to reduce wasted energy as well as helping towards current economical issues surrounding clean energy.
Bass says that IoT systems also will lead to better margins and enable a change in the role of the service person to one of a salesperson. In the new service world, the presence of a service person doesn’t mean something is wrong; instead, things are going right. Since facility managers are now happy to see them, service people can inform facility managers about additional things they could do to improve their systems and have an even better experience.
He adds: “It changes that relationship, and you have the data outcome to prove it and back it up. That is likely to make the service person’s job more valuable, leading to higher pay.”
The deployment of IoT elevator technology will continue to gain traction in the coming years due to the implementation of smart equipment in building management systems.
“There are more IoT devices worldwide than mobile phones already,” Guidotti says. “We are not talking about an industry that was just born yesterday. Maybe in the elevator and an escalator business we are at the beginning, but it’s already established and mature; it’s a technology and a business model that will keep on going.”