Over the last number of years we have been making big efforts to find clean and economic energies in order to reduce our dependence on those used at present and to lower the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. However, everyone has an individual responsibility to practise the key to ecological sustainability: Energy Efficiency.

Though Energy Efficiency is not usually considered to be an energy “source” itself, those countries that know how to exploit it, have demonstrated that efficient use of energy is more powerful than an abundance of sources. This is mainly due to the fact that the Cleanest Energy is the one that has not to be produced.

The project is characterized by three main features: Energy efficiency, Ecology and Economy

Following this conviction, MP is developing a project for the Design of an Efficient, Ecological and Economic Lift with R+D being carried out by 8 groups of CIT (Communications and Information Technology), PT (Production Technology) and PCM (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics), from the Universities of Seville and Cadiz, making a total of 21 lines of research.

The project is made up of a series of sub-projects, each of them utilizing different components and/or lift technologies for the production of a lift and a new line of components characterized by three main features: Energy efficiency, Ecology and Economy.

Energy Efficiency is the project’s priority and is manifest in almost all of its developments. The reduction of energy consumption will be achieved mainly through the combination of a traction system with a regenerative inverter, capable of exploiting the braking energy of the lift.

In addition, Energy Efficiency will be enhanced by several features, for example the synchronous door operator, the stand alone external control stations, car lighting by leds and the energy saving stand-by profile.

The second aspect to be considered is Ecology. The reduction of the lift’s ecological impact is achieved through the above mentioned energy reductions as well as the reduction of the materials used in the manufacturing of the product. Concerning the latter point, the interventions basically involve two approaches:

• Reduction of iron-steel. The new concept of a self-supporting car reduces substantially the quantity of steel needed.
  
  
• Reduction of electric cables, carried out by the implementation of the following: Stand alone external control stations, wireless or feeder data transmission, inclusion of safety signs in the data transmission line, optimization of electric installation, etc…

he third goal to be achieved by the project is Economy. A product endowed with excellent energy efficiency and ecological sensitivity proves itself useless if its price makes it prohibitive on the European lift market.

The imperative is to create an economically viable and competitive product, able to survive in a highly competitive market. For this reason, a cost reduction policy will be a priority on the project design, except in those cases where environmental respect may be affected.

Juan de Dios Granados López
Electronics R+D Manager
Project Coordinator