TESTING OF ELEVATORS

Welcome to High-Tech Silicon Valley. Production and Research Center "KONE Park" in Kunshan (China) is a place where modern high-altitude innovations are thoroughly tested.

The recently opened 36-flloor, 235-meter-high test tower rises in the middle of the flat landscape of this city. Without exaggeration, this is a real skyscraper: it has no offices, apartments or commercial space, only a spacious engine room and twelve elevator shafts. Everything that is inside these mines changes every month.

“The whole tower is essentially a technical chameleon. Elevators in test mines are constantly changing. Every month we dismantle and install new elevators or at least new components”, says Antti Hoppania, director of reliability and quality of KONE technology.

TECHNICAL CHAMELEON

Among several permanent test facilities there is an ultra-fast two-tier elevator carrying passengers from the ground floor to the observation deck and to the exhibition hall at a speed of 10 meters per second. This is the world's first two-tier elevator with the technology of ultra-light cable KONE UltraRope™.

Another permanent object is a freight elevator that can go up to the 36th floor. It is intended solely for development and research. The tower also serves as a unique place for KONE to invite customers and show the latest developments in action.

The location of the test tower in the middle of the existing research and production park significantly increases the speed of KONE. “Now that we have more power, strength and speed, we can launch new products to the market more than ever before,” says Hoppania.

The test tower in Kunshan is the “Asian twin” of KONE high-altitude laboratory in Tyutyri, Finland.
“We needed additional power and capabilities for altitude testing. Previously, we depended on the object in Finland and small test mines in Kunshan, but their height could not be compared with the height of this tower”, explains Khoppania.

NEW HEIGHTS IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

The new center is very well located and combines two KONE research centers in Finland and China. “Now we are physically closer to our customers in Asia, and the two teams work as one cohesive team in the western and eastern hemisphere,” he adds.

“KONE is the main participant in the development of technologies in the market of buildings of medium and high-rise buildings. This new attraction, designed exclusively for research and development, is a powerful visual symbol of our desire to take elevator technology to new heights. ”