Tested for your benefit

As visitors step into the futuristic KONE DX elevator, they're greeted by a colorful glow in the spacious, high-ceilinged interior. The ride is swift and smooth, accompanied by ambient sounds, as a digital display counts down the levels. Mere seconds later, the elevator reaches its destination, some 200 meters underground.

The destination is at “Level 200” of KONE’s slightly surreal Tytyri high-rise testing laboratory in Lohja, where the future of elevator technology is tested as deep as 350 meters underground. It’s a place where the elevators are pushed to their limits before they are ready for real-life rides.

“Tytyri plays a really important role in testing high-rise elevators and new technology. From aerodynamics to freefall, braking, ride comfort and reliability, a whole range of things are tested here,” says KONE’s Senior Reliability Manager Jarmo Reijonen.

While it is a multi-sensory experience in itself, the visitor’s elevator is but a tiny reflection of the innovations being developed and tested at this subterranean laboratory.

Asked to picture a futuristic high-rise elevator testing site, most people would probably imagine some kind of tower stretching into the clouds. It was quite the feat of lateral thinking when, in the late 1990s, KONE’s innovative engineers decided to take over the disused shafts of an active limestone mine and repurpose them for high-rise testing.

The result was a truly unique testing facility which was both cheaper to build and more practical than a tower. “Not only are machine rooms and their heavy components at ground level, rather than 300 meters in the air, but you can also access every level by car,” Jarmo Reijonen says.

The original site was expanded and developed to include a second site in 2017. Today, Reijonen and his team utilize some 1.7 kilometers of combined depth and 11 operational shafts to put KONE’s solutions through their paces.

“Reliability and quality testing can mean keeping this test elevator running 24/7, all through the nights and weekends,” he says, pointing to one of the exposed machine rooms on the lab floor.

Discovering unexpected wear and tear on one particular component, or investigating a strange noise, is not only Reijonen’s bread and butter, but it’s also crucial to maintaining world class standards across every conceivable aspect of service and solution.

“Every type of failure is nice to find,” he says with a chuckle.

If caught in the so-called “mileage testing” phases, discovering a wrongly installed bearing can make the difference between months of repairs post-installation or a few days’ fix. Yet, even testing is never done without extensive preparations and safety analysis.

“Preparing for one 20-second test can take weeks,” Reijonen says.

For the layperson, the freefall test is probably the most exciting procedure to happen here. A test device is configured to suddenly plummet downwards at up to 26 meters per second, simulating the virtually impossible situation of all suspension ropes simultaneously failing.

In a manner deeply reassuring to most of us, and crushingly disappointing for many Hollywood directors, the 15,000kg load is arrested smoothly and swiftly, coming to a cushioned stop. It’s impressive, and even Reijonen says he still gets a “Wow!” moment running the test.

“Safety is of course the first and most important thing when it comes to testing, followed by quality and 24-hour reliability,” Reijonen explains. “Ride comfort in high-rise elevators has been one of the most critical aspects for usability, so we have devices that measure every vibration, noise and sensation that a user might experience.”

Many of KONE’s innovative solutions get put to the test here, including a swathe of next generation high-rise solutions. However, true to the sci-fi theme, that’s all firmly under wraps, says Reijonen.

Something he can talk about is UltraRope, and he points to two machines that sit across from each other in the laboratory. One is almost the size and heft of a small car – it powers a steel cable model. The other utilizes UltraRope suspension, which is 90 percent lighter. The machine is less than half the size.

Seeing this in real life highlights the important relationship between sustainability and innovation. It’s one of the reasons why KONE allows selected customers and partners to visit the facility each year.

Exciting as the Tytyri facility is, the work there represents a relatively small share of KONE’s R&D testing around the globe. In fact, major testing facilities exist at seven different sites, including in China, India, Italy, Mexico and the US, with the most comprehensive software testing operations in Hyvinkää, Finland and Chennai, India.

“We’re doing amazing things at KONE and we test a lot. We have our own reliability and quality targets, but customer expectations, user expectations, safety regulations and standards are all different across different regions,” explains KONE’s Head of Shared R&D Services, Jaana Niemi.

Not only must all components be verified, but they must also be tested in the context of the entire system, and this goes for both software, hardware and every conceivable combination of the two. There are electrical tests, performance tests, power line tests and energy consumption studies – plus, all the bending, stretching, thermal imaging and mechanical stress tests imaginable.

“Our end-to-end testing regime focuses on the flow of the entire system, its functionality, reliability, performance, and security,” explains Niemi. “And we always keep a view of the full-chain and the entire life cycle of a solution.”

As elevators and escalators evolve, so too must testing – and AI will play an increasing role in both, says Niemi.

"Ten years ago there was a lot of focus on hardware, software, and electrification. Today, extensive cybersecurity has become a crucial component of the testing regime as keeping the people flow resilient requires robust cybersecurity practices,” Niemi adds. “Similarly, IoT and 24/7 connectivity will go on changing the picture, and a lot of testing methods can now be done remotely, even from multiple locations at the same time.”

At the same time, emerging simulation technologies are opening totally new opportunities for testing not just the elevators but the urban flow of people and materials.

“As our head of R&D Johannes Rastas points out, elevator testing is entering a new era where digital twin technology allows us to design, test, and validate elevators in virtual environments. This technology extends the simulations beyond the elevator, allowing us to envision and enhance the seamless flow of city life."

So, as technological advances offer more opportunities, will real-world testing such as that at Tytyri become less important? According to Niemi, it’s not likely.

''We cannot simulate everything, so hardware testing is still crucial in Tytyri.”

Tytyri was also the filming location for our 'Tested for your benefit' campaign. It takes a humorous look at some of the situations our well-tested elevators might face in action – from a waiter balancing a full tray of champagne glasses to a small pony on his way to greet hospital patients.

Filmed in a controlled and safe test environment. Please do not try this at home or in a public place.