Machine Room Less (MRL) Elevators – The things you should know but no one have ever told you.
January 9th, 2013 by andy
Machine Room Less (MRL) Elevators – The things you should know but no one have ever told you.
Since the elevator safety was invented in 1853, elevator technology has progressed relatively slowly. That is until the introduction of MRL elevators in the early 1990’s.
Up until that point, there were two types of elevators to choose. Hydraulic & traction; and these both had advantages and weaknesses.
With the introduction of MRL elevators we were given the best of both worlds with smaller hoistways, design flexibility for the control spaces, lower energy consumption, etc. However design professionals now faced a bigger issue.
Elevators used to be just like making a batch of cookies. From job to job, manufacturer to manufacturer, and jurisdiction to jurisdiction you could almost just cut and paste and not have any issues.
Now if you are not careful you could end up like this. From company to company you now see that everyone has a different pit, overhead, hoistway width, hoistway depth, etc. The market is also changing so fast that as companies develop new products the ones you used on the last job may no longer be available. We have even seen one of the major elevator companies remove from their website one of the most standard elevator configurations and no only show one of their speciality offerings that only they can fit into. Be warned if you just go to a company’s website and download their information you are getting their preferred offering and not necessarily something that all bidders can provide. It is hard to be frustrated with the manufacturers because their job is to sell you their product. Just make sure that you know the consequences of what you are doing.
Below is a depiction of the myriad of different MRL elevators that are out on the market. Make sure to check with your elevator consultant before you make a design choice that may cost the project and your firm unnecessary time and money.
