How do spiral escalators work

A high-speed escalator that you can step on and off safely Escalators that can run smoothly up and down when you stand on the steps also need to ensure your safety when you step on and off. Nobuhiko Sato.

Tags civil engineering. You may also like. Feb 11, — hightech. Oct 29, — hightech. Nov 5, — hightech. Nov 7, — work. Jun 11, — life. At first glance, these escalators appear to have curvatures without any special features.

But the arcing structures achieved use elaborate, sophisticated technologies only capable of being realized applying the design, manufacturing, and installation skills of expert engineers. Brochure 5. Design Discovery of the "Centralized motion method" principle Most curving escalators once proposed around the world were based on methods for movement in a concentric circle. But none ever made it to market.

Even though the speed of horizontal movement when creating a semi-circle is regular, making it possible to move concentrically, the structural problem is that movement in the horizontal direction slows to the extent that there is vertical movement in the inclined section.

Mitsubishi Electric overcame this issue by developing the "centralized motion method," in which the central point moves in stages based on the angle of incline.

For example, a special chain capable of supporting a wide variety of angles required for the spiral orbit was introduced to move the steps. Horizontal rollers are installed on the outer-side of the chain, enabling the structure to manage the inward force generated by the arching configuration.

This enables the escalator steps to move along the fixed orbital plane with high accuracy. Installed in the corners or at the sides of a large room, spiral escalators greatly increase the amount of usable floor space. This arrangement easily lends itself to high end retail stores or art galleries and is ideal for any space where people gather and control of pedestrian traffic is central to the organization of the space.

Stacking spiral escalators above each other in a multiple plan configuration creates a spectacular atrium effect. The reason is said to be because they thought both straight lines and curves operated under the same principle. To begin with, in standard escalators, the steps on which people stand are operated by a mechanism in which the axes of two aligned rows of chains move up and down.

These steps simply move together with the chain—at first they are flat, then they make a slope, and they become flat again at the end.