ThyssenKrupp Bottom Drive Diagonal MRL Lift near Berne, Switzerland

Timestamps:
0:00 intro
0:19 normal ride
2:02 control cabinet / motor / shaft pit
5:11 car top / lift shaft
This lift is situated in an office building near Berne, Switzerland. It was installed upon construction of the building. Due to the special situation in this building, this lift has doors over edge. The 2nd door side is only used on the bottom floor, which contains a parking garage.
This lift is part of ThyssenKrupps early MRL program. It is a rather unconventional design that features a geared machine in the shaft pit in standing configuration. The control cabinet is located on the bottom floor and contains an LS2 controller, which was introduced by Thyssen in the 90s. The doors over edge lead to this lift having a diagonal chassis, which is very unusual for an MRL.
Manufacturer: ThyssenKrupp, 2005
Capacity: 11 persons / 825 kg
Type: Traction, 2:1 roping
Floors: 4: SS, EG, 1, 2
Fixtures: Schaefer MT42
Speed: 1 m/s
Travel height: 11.3m
Logic: ThyssenKrupp LS2
Drive: ThyssenKrupp CPI 26
Motor: TW 63, 11 kW
WARNING/DISCLAIMER: DO NOT attempt to copy anything shown in the video without having the proper knowledge of how to do so! LIFT SHAFTS and MACHINE ROOMS are very DANGEROUS places and are NOT MEANT to be accessed by inexperienced or untrained personnel!
Dangers in these environments include but are not limited to crushing, electrocution, falling and burns.

[@fw6797]

Da,s weer een bijzondere installatie , loopt netjes 👍

[@TheLiftDragon]

Thank you!

[@Biasca1]

Gut gemachte Aufnahmen!

[@TheLiftDragon]

Danke!

[@wolf106wolf3]

This motor model is Liftequip TW63

[@TheLiftDragon]

TW63 is manufactured by TKE. Liftequip is a subsidiary of TKE to sell TKE parts to generic companies. This lift here is not generic though, it is all TKE.

[@elevator_satellite]

Fun fact, most MRL lifts in Japan are bottom drive.

[@TheLiftDragon]

Now that was unexpected! I assume there's one or a few specific models that aren't sold in Europe that account for the high percentage?

[@elevator_satellite]

@@TheLiftDragon Those bottom drive models are region-specific, so to comply with other countries' codes, they produce top drive models to be sold overseas. For example: Mitsubishi AXIEZ -> Mitsubishi NEXIEZ Hitachi UrbanAce -> Hitachi UAG Fujitec XIOR -> Fujitec REXIA Many Japanese brands haven't entered the European market as well.

[@TheLiftDragon]

​@@elevator_satellite It's a bit sad that there's almost no lifts from Japan around here, would surely be interesting to see more different designs. I also don't really know any technical details about them, of course, as there appear to be none in Switzerland and I have never seen one. So are the top drive alternatives only for overseas? That would be rather strange as bottom drive MRLs exist all over the world. We have these here from ThyssenKrupp that can be found in the German speaking area. In Switzerland there's also bottom drive MRLs from the generic company Emch, these use Ziehl-Abegg machines. And in the UK and US there is the ThyssenKrupp Isis that also works the same basically. I think the specific part of the approval for different regions lies more on the controller and electrical section. That's where US an EU regulations differ the most. Things like what requirements have to be met for advanced door opening or what part of the safety circuit can be bridged under what circumstances.

[@elevator_satellite]

@@TheLiftDragon There have been bottom drive models released for overseas, such as older Hitachi UAG models. It's not sold anymore and replaced with the top drive newer UAG model, and I think it's due to weather conditions overseas. Like my country, which is prone to floods, electrification can be damaged in the pit. Also possibly because technicians are more used to maintenance of top drive MRLs, since there is a higher amount of them.

[@TheLiftDragon]

@@elevator_satellite Bottom drive MRLs need more deflecting sheaves, more steel beams, more material. They're generally more complex and therefore more expensive and as lifts have to be as cheap as possible nowadays, a bottom drive MRL would not really be competitive anymore. That's how I see it mainly. An advantage of bottom drive lifts in general is that when geared machines were used, the noise of the motor was moved away from the offices or apartments on the upper floors. But as we now have gearless machines that operate more or less silently, this advantage has become negligible.

[@mattmoreira210]

Schindler Smart vibes lol

[@TheLiftDragon]

There's something to it indeed. Such Schindler Smart style geared MRLs were also built by Orona and by Otis.

[@wdowa94]

As 'Lift Emergency Technician' i call Thyssen Krupp logo a 'Quality mark' in irony. They do look nice They are relatively quiet Faults... That's the real quality of them- You can learn so much no Thyssen Elevators

[@TheLiftDragon]

Their older models like the one here seem still quite fine to me but the newer ones (CMC 4 controller....) Are not trustworthy. Though even the LS2 controller has a bug that when you put it back on normal after having it on recall or inspection and the lift is near the wnd of the shaft, it might overrun.

[@SeanBZA]

Only know of one diagonal lift by me, and that one is a century old one, with relay logic and manual steel slat doors on the inner side, though the outer doors are wooden swing doors. Another equally old one has both doors being steel slat, which stays, as the building is a listed historical monument.

[@TheLiftDragon]

Really nice to hear that such old lifts are still in service! Over time I have come across a few old lifts from the 60s and 70s that also had diagonal frames because of doors arranged over edge. Two of them even with 3 door sides and swing doors - but without inner doors. Innerdoorless lifts were very common in Switzerland back then and luckily there are still plenty remaining in more or less original condition today. I have to say that this lift here rather surprised me as nowadays over-edge doors are generally realised with lifts in backpack configuration and not with diagonal chassis. Seeing such an install from past 2000 is very unusual.

[@SeanBZA]

@@TheLiftDragon Yes I worked next door to a building we rented space in, and the lift was "modernised" around the 1950's, leaving the original Otis controller still operating, just with a skinned car and sliding doors, and swing outside doors. Lived in a building with the original FIAM motor and car, later on upgraded to Express, and finally updated to a new Otis computerised upgrade board. Needed 2 new trailing cables, and a controller, because it relaxed and sliced on the car, delivering the lighting power into the 24VDC supply. Otis lost a lot there, they failed to include in the quote both the new trailing cables, old gutta percha ones that leaked, plus also the new shaft cabling, though i did replace the building side breaker to replace the 1939 era cast steel breaker with ammeter in the cap.

[@TheLiftDragon]

​@@SeanBZA Oh so I guess it now has an LCB 2 controller? They're mostly used on such mods. Work fine but nothing special, very common. Would have been really interesting to see the original controller. If you're interested in such a lift that is still original and also has it's original relay controller, I suggest you have a look at this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGemaKxomtyWo8U It is one of the lifts I have mentioned. The biggest one of these diagonal chassis lifts I have found yet has a capacity of 3000 kg and has 4:1 roping, a truly unique combination. Sadly it is defunct and located in an abandoned, partially demolished building. It will probably never run again.

[@SeanBZA]

@@TheLiftDragon Nothing much left of the original controller except the power transformers still in use powering the controller and DC brake and retiring cam coils. Plus one mod I scribbled up on a piece of cardboard from a box, that got signed off by a PR. Eng, and laminated, to stay in the service book, as is. Original controller was Express, with the shaft play meaning it was interactive, in that if you stood on one side it would skip floors, drifting out the tappet switch guide, and adjusting to not do that would eat Otis shaft guide bushes within a month. Did suggest that they needed alignment on the shaft, easy to do with some measuring and a welder to attach the spacers in the loose section, but never done.

[@xtn7377]

Never heard of bottom drive MRL

[@TheLiftDragon]

Well now you have - they're pretty rare but they exist.

[@SeanBZA]

@@TheLiftDragon Yes most of the MRL I see here by me are top of shaft drive, though a few are top of car drive instead, as they got retrofitted to a shopping centre to add in wheelchair access, and they had to fit into a very limited envelope, both height wise and also have maximum usable interior volume. They do have a very hearty appetite for ropes and sheaves though, as the run is really long and complicated, plus they had to be pretty much free standing off the floor, and no projection below either, so the bottom of shaft is pretty much the thickness of the concrete slab.

[@asetatlikalem]

ThyseenGroup has ben going downhill for several years espacilly from ISIS era

[@TheLiftDragon]

They have indeed. This type of lift here was installed around the same times as the isis, the model might even be a bit older. It is different from the isis though as the isis was for the UK and US while the lift here was installed in central Europe. I have to say that I do like this construction here though. It is mechanically solid where it has to be and it is also fine from an electrical / controller standpoint. Modern day TKEs are just unbearable though. Cheap mechanical construction and the CMC4 controller is just trash.

[@asetatlikalem]

@@TheLiftDragon yeah. İmpossible to maintain, overall quality is bad, there is absoluetly no caharacter only lasts about 5-10 years,

[@TheLiftDragon]

@@asetatlikalem Absolutely agree.

[@asetatlikalem]

@@TheLiftDragon thats why i have never seen a New tyseengroup in switzerland and germany

[@TheLiftDragon]

@@asetatlikalem They do exist here too but I have never filmed one for KZbin bc I don't like them. In Basel there is a high-rise appartment building with TKE Evolution Blue from 2018, they seem mechanically fine and go approx. 2m/s. Surely one of the better modern Thyssen things.