18 / 24
NEW
INNOVATIONS
IN FOR A
SMOOTH
RIDE
KONE Modernization Overlay promises high usability
and traffic capacity as well as eco-efficiency and
minimized disturbances.
“The reduction in energy consump-
tion has two main ingredients. First of
all, if the elevator group is modernized
without overlay, then during the up-
grade period the old and the modern-
ized elevators act as two independent
groups or systems. Human behavior is
such that in most cases, a passenger
will press the buttons on both sets of
call buttons and take the first elevator
that reaches his floor. So, in practice,
the second elevator travels unnecessar-
ily with the overall system using twice
the energy to respond to one elevator
call. The modernization overlay elimi-
nates this occurrence.”
Another energy saving factor is, of
course, inherent in the new and more
efficient elevator itself.
EASY DOES IT
“The precedent for the new overlay
system dates from the late 1980s and
early 1990s. That’s when KONE had
a system based on relay logic. This
was helpful during modernizations up
to about the mid-90s, but after the
introduction of the microprocessor
and micro chips, things changed,”
Loftus explains.
“With the new modernization
overlay, we can modernize almost all
elevator systems regardless of who the
manufacturer is,” he continues.
The installation time is short, thanks
to the overlay’s modular component
structure: KONE group controller, UPS
(uninterruptible power supply) and
communication networks. The system
can be installed even during one week-
end. This ensures minimized out-of-
service times, which are often measured
in mere hours.
Each elevator in a group is modern-
ized in turn, adding to the number of
new elevators. The KONE Moderniza-
tion Overlay increases the People Flow
as more elevators are completed. Before
modernization of the last elevator, the
overlay is removed and the final KONE
group controller takes full responsibility
for call allocation.
•
TEXT:
MARJA BERISA
PHOTO:
KONE
W
hen it comes to ca-
pacity, elevator mod-
ernizations can be
tricky. The worst case
scenario is decreased
flow capacity and out of service eleva-
tors. There is a solution, however.
KONE Modernization Overlay is a
temporary high-level group control tool
for use during modernization. Its basic
function is to allocate landing calls be-
tween the new, modernized elevators
and the old elevator system. The over-
lay gives priority to the new elevators,
maximizing the use of elevators with
the highest People Flow™ capacity and
lowest energy consumption.
Passengers use common landing
stations - or destination operating pan-
els (DOP) in the cases for destination
control systems - for calling both old
and new elevators. The overlay may
even increase the People Flow during
renovation.
Tony Loftus
, Service Busi-
ness Modernization Solution Manager,
explains the advantage:
18
| PEOPLE FLOW