Current and future trends in the Elevator industry

By Mr. Manish Mehan, CEO & MD, TK Elevator India

As urbanization continues to pick up pace in India, the need for housing and commercial space will grow, which will increase the demand for vertical transportation. The Oxford Economics’ Global cities report estimates that India will account for17 out of 20 fastest-growing cities globally between 2019 and 2035, and cities are expectedto contribute to 70% of India’s GDP by 2030.

Significant innovations and advancements such as the introductionof smart elevators, rope-less elevator- MULTI, AI, and Internet of Things, extended reality technology have changed the overall face of the elevator industry. these advancements have made vertical transport smart and more accessible in the past few years. Today is an exciting time for the elevator industry, as technology evolves, elevator solutions, their maintenance and technology advancement will also evolve simultaneously. As a result, the future of elevator systems is expected to be more energy-efficient and safe.

Digitalization has opened up new opportunities and created new values for the industry, and this era brings disruptive innovations that have the potential to changethe industry significantly. With the usage of IoT, elevators can virtually talk to us, tell us when they need help, and even advise technicians on the cause and solution in combination with AI and machine learning. So, it can be fixed before customers even realize there’s an issue. This proactive customer service is all about the ability to understand customers’ needs and address them before they evolve,because downtime of an elevator is likely to affect many people’s mobility, especially in mid or high-rise buildings, which can cause a significant delay in work.

Innovative cloud-based solutions were designed to leverage the power of big data to predict maintenance issues before they happen. Such a proactive approach allows connected or smart elevators to deliver unprecedented savings in time and costs.

Elevators are traditionally limited to vertically moving; with the latest technology,they can move horizontally as well. The elevator industry nowoffers the ground-breaking experience of horizontal movement. It is the world’s first rope-free elevator for high-rises that allows the operation of multiple elevator cars in a single shaft vertically and horizontally. It reduces elevators’ footprint by up to 50 percent while increasing passenger throughputpassengers’ time spent queuing up would be reduced as well.

This innovative technology has changed the concept of elevators in tall building construction. The new innovation is set to revolutionize tall building construction. With the rope-free system, architects and developers are no longer restricted in their designs by concerns about elevator shaft height and vertical alignment.