|
Sponsored Links
An elevator or lift is a vertical transport vehicle that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building. They are powered by electric motors that either drive traction cables and counterweights a pulley, or pump hydraulic fluid to raise a cylindrical piston. Languages other than English may have loanwords based on either elevator (e.g. Japanese) or lift (e.g. Cantonese). Because of wheelchair access laws, elevators are often a legal requirement in new buildings with just a few floors. Lifts began as simple rope or chain hoists. A lift is essentially a platform that is either pulled or pushed up by a mechanical means. A modern day lift consists of a cab (also called a "cage" or "car") mounted on a platform within an enclosed space called a shaft, or in Commonwealth countries called a "hoistway". In the past, lift drive mechanisms were powered by steam and water hydraulic pistons. In a "traction" lift, cars are pulled up by means of rolling steel ropes over a deeply grooved pulley, commonly called a sheave in the industry. The weight of the car is balanced with a counterweight. Sometimes two lifts always move synchronously in opposite directions, and they are each other's counterweight.
|
Elevator Subcategories
Elevator Articles
|
| 
