Otis has sold more than 7 lakh Gen2 elevators worldwide

The Gen2 range is geared towards efficiency whilst providing environmentally friendly features and benefits says Sebi Joseph, President, Otis India.

What are some of the key elements which enhances the safety features of your mobility solutions?
We give people the freedom to connect and thrive in a taller, faster, smarter world. This begins with our three absolutes: Ethics, Safety and Quality. For us, safety is about everyone – our employees, our customers and the general public who utilise our elevators to commute between floors.

Evidence of this can be seen throughout our facilities and in our practices. Most notably, our Bengaluru facility has garnered a number of industry-renowned certifications in both quality and sustainability. Also, our employees at the factory use a customised operating system designed to deliver world-class products and services with safety in mind.  

Situational safety mechanisms
The Automatic Rescue Device (ARD) is extremely useful in regions with an irregular power supply. In the event of a power outage, passengers may panic and attempt to exit the car. This is unsafe and puts them in harm’s way without the aidof safety personnel. The ARD brings the elevator cab to the nearest floor and opens the doors until the power supply is resumed. 

Seismic sensors installed in buildings are designed to detect earthquakes. A seismic sensor linked to an elevator controller and can halt the cab and bring it to the nearest floor when an earthquake is detected. Other add-on safety features include fire alarm home landing, intercom, and emergency power operation.

Security and access features 
With the continuous improvement in access technology, an elevator can also be used to protect tenants or building occupants from intruders, offering security from external threats. Secure Access technologies can require certain codes be entered to allow access to particular floors. Additionally, the elevators can be programmed so that when a passenger inserts a card into the card reader, he or she will be allowed to register a call to certain floors only. This aims to prevent unauthorised access. 

Other safety features include an infra-red door protection system, a door protection system that consists of invisible infrared beams across the entrance of the elevators. And overload detection feature does not allow the elevator doors to close in the event if the cab is carrying passengers beyond its specified capacity.

What makes your products energy efficient?
Otis’ flagship product line, the Gen2 range is geared towards efficiency whilst providing environmentally friendly features and benefits. Otis has sold more than 7 lakh Gen2 elevators worldwide since its launch. Some of the key components of the Gen2 range are coated steel belt, that replaces traditional cables, a ReGen regenerative drive, permanent magnet machine and Otis’ PULSE system, all of which, when combined, increase the lifespan, efficiency, safety and reliability of the elevator system. 

Elevators use a counterweight; therefore, when an empty elevator travels up or a fully loaded elevator travels down, energy is created and often is wasted as heat. The ReGen drive turns this energy into electricity and then feeds this captured power back into the building’s electrical grid for reuse by other building systems such as lighting. It produces “clean power” thanks to low harmonic distortion which minimizes impact on the building’s electrical system and helps protect sensitive equipment. The Otis Gen2 elevator and ReGen drive combine to reduce energy consumption by up to 75 per cent under normal operating conditions, compared to conventional systems with non-regenerative drives.

As for existing elevators, they can be made energy efficient by adding the Variable Frequency Drives (VF drives) in the door system and elevator control system. VF drives regulate power and help with optimizing energy usage. ReGen drives can additionally be fitted to an existing system. And auto-fan and auto-light switch off operations can also be adopted as well as LED lights can be used to replace tube lights inside the elevator car to save energy. 

Otis’ CompassPlus destination dispatching system moves people more efficiently by grouping passengers going to the same or nearby floors. The system focuses on shortening total trip times (or time to destination), and not just waiting time.

The company’s SmartGrouping technology groups stops (by dividing the building into sectors) and then groups people based upon their destinations to those sectors of the building. This reduces travel time and provides more efficient use of the elevator system.

What level of customisation do you provide to your clients?
Elevators are made to order depending on the size of the hoistway. That’s one very important level of customisation. Apart from size and dimension, elevator interiors, including wall panels, car operating panels, hall position indicators, hall operating panels and other interfaces offer a high degree of customization. The CompassPlus system also offers customization and control, including interfacing with the building security systems and access controls and the design of the screen graphics.  

How do you ensure maximum uptime when it comes to your mobility solutions?
Over the past five years, Otis globally has increased its R&D investment by nearly 50 per cent, hiring software engineers, data analysts and artificial intelligence experts as we transform from a primarily mechanical business to a digital industrial.

The mobility solutions provided by Otis are as follows:
a) Empowering field professionals with iPhones and customised apps that will help increase efficiency, expertise and capabilities
b) Placing sensors atop elevators that collect data and offer real-time updates on the elevator’s performance.
c) Providing customers access to transparent and real-time data on their elevator’s performance.

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