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German mechanical company ThyssenKrupp, in collaboration with Microsoft, has launched its newest innovational elevator, MAX. Together, the companies have created an elevator that could create time savings for elevator passengers “equivalent to 108 centuries of new availability in each year of operation."
As the most utilized means of transportation—with 12 million units carrying one billion people each day—the elevator has become an integral piece of modern building. Unfortunately, over the course of one year, elevators are out of use for over 190 million hours (equivalent to 216 centuries) due to service interventions.
Using Microsoft’s Azure Internet of Things (IoT) technology, MAX “is set to significantly improve all these statistics, aiming to cut unavailability periods in half” by making it possible for an elevator to “tell” service technicians about its needs, “including real-time identification of repairs, component replacements, and proactive system maintenance.”
With the new system, data is collected in real time and sent to Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, where an algorithm calculates the remaining lifespan of elevator components and systems, which better equips ThyssenKrupp’s over 20,000 global service engineers to respond to forthcoming issues before they become problematic.
The United States, Germany, and Spain will serve as pilot countries for MAX, with 180,000 units launching to North America and Europe to start with. “In two years, the offering will be expanded to all continents, becoming available to some 80% of all elevators worldwide.” Learn more about the project here.
News via ThyssenKrupp.
