Lift Forum 2020: New trends and developments

Interesting news from the areas of door modernisation, CANopen, BIM and condition monitoring – this is promised by the now established Lift Forum, which will take place again this year.

As in previous years, the Munich door manufacturer Meiller Aufzugtüren, Algi – manufacturer of hydraulic lift systems and components – the company Danfoss with its frequency converter segment and the control technology manufacturer Kollmorgen, based in Cologne, were the organisers. Digipara, the specialist for software solutions for fully automatic creation of lifts, is now part of the group of organisers.

The first event was on 11 February at Meiller in Munich; this was followed by another forum on 10 March, organised by Kollmorgen.

Current innovations and interesting subjects

As usual, the companies involved will present their current innovations and interesting subjects involving lifts. At the first event, Peter Will, Meiller product manager, got things started: he presented the new flexible modernisation concept of car and landing doors.

As a result, you can either replace the door mechanism on its own and leave all the other components as they are or also replace the door leaves and/or sill for new components that correspond precisely in size to the replaced ones. This enables the operator to tailor the scope of modernisation to its budget.

Shaft information systems and hydraulic jacks…

The speakers at the second lift forum in Cologne: Simon Gebhard (Algi), Sandra Eisenbarth (Digipara), Peter Will (Meiller), Lars Kollmorgen and Michael Müller (Danfoss) (from left to right). Photo: © Meiller Aufzugtüren

In his talk, Lars Kollmorgen dealt with new approaches in safety technology, "MPK 411 – the reliable processor when using safe copying." This involved various shaft information systems and the many different advantages that come from integration in the lift controller. This is not just the fact that fewer components mean fewer interfaces and more space in the shaft, but also that start-up and setting are simplified.

Next, Harald Giehl from Algi presented the new web tools. These permit online configuration and transmission to the company with just a few clicks of not just hydraulic jacks and aggregate, but also of complete cargo and car lifts. ALGI employees check the configuration for plausibility and are then in a position to draw up a corresponding offer faster on this basis for the customer.

Software solutions for BIM

Michael Müller from Danfoss examined interesting facts and the latest developments in the field of frequency converters. In particular, he highlighted the numerous advantages of using frequency converters, especially when it comes to hydraulic lifts.

Finally, Andreas Fleischmann, an expert for BIM in lift construction, outlined the various software solutions available from Digipara for planning and configuring lifts and escalators. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a method for optimising the planning, realisation and management of a building with the assistance of a digital 3D BIM model.

Precisely for this reason, the BIM method is growing in importance in technical building equipment. According to Fleischmann, Digipara supports automation of the entire workflow with various software solutions, resulting in enormous savings in time and money.

More forums in autumn

If this has whetted your curiosity and got you interested in these topics, you can take part in more events. The next forums will take place in Germany on 6 October in Hamburg and on 28 October in Eltville at Algi.

In addition, the group is organising three lift forums abroad, namely, in Manchester and Gorinchem (Netherlands). More information and all dates can be found on the Internet, where you can also register online.

More information:www.aufzugsforen.de