What is Freight Elevator?
Before considering the purchase of an elevator for your building, you must fully consider the usage requirements. Not only do you have to consider the comfort of the owners and customers, but you also have to consider important needs such as renovations. This is where a freight elevator becomes particularly important. So, what are the characteristics of a freight elevator? What is the difference between it and a normal passenger elevator? This article will take you through everything you want to know.
The difference between freight elevator and passenger elevator
We will introduce the characteristics and differences of passenger elevators, service elevators, and freight elevators.
Passenger Elevators
Passenger elevators are designed and rated for the transportation of passengers. Vertical elevators powered by electric motors are equipped with box pods and can be used in multi-story buildings. Elevators used to carry passengers require complete safety facilities and the interior of the elevator is decorated to some extent.
Service Elevators
Service elevators are often incorrectly referred to as freight elevators. A service elevator is actually a general passenger elevator equipped with a multi-purpose car and floor, usually located in the "staff-only" area of a commercial building. The most common example is the service elevator used in hotel guest rooms. You can always tell the difference between a transport elevator and a freight elevator because a freight elevator is a "double door" that opens vertically, while a freight elevator is a regular sliding door. In rare cases, freight elevators can be classified and rated, but this is an exception rather than a rule.
Differences
Freight elevators are not passenger elevators and should not be confused with service elevators. Service elevators do carry light cargo, such as cardboard boxes, but that's where all the similarities end. A service elevator is a modified passenger elevator. Service elevators are expressly designated for behind-the-scenes use by employees, such as in hotels, hospitals, apartments, or office buildings, to distribute and transport cartons, furniture, or groceries without interfering with normal passenger elevator service. Freight elevators are typically located in manufacturing plants, warehouses, and retail establishments.
Why do you need vertical opening doors?
The answer is simple: to maximize the size of the cargo that can be loaded into the car while minimizing the amount of shaft space required to accommodate it. Freight elevator cars and vertical sliding doors are specifically designed to provide full-width openings to maximize the use of the elevator car. This also eliminates the possibility of impact and potential damage to the doors during loading and unloading. Clear doors and carriages allow easy loading of goods from carts, pallet trucks, forklifts, cars, and even trucks and trailers. Horizontal sliding doors require additional space on each side of the entrance to accommodate the door when opened. The entrance width of horizontal doors is also limited.
When designing the interior of an elevator car, practicality is much more important than aesthetics. The doors will use a lot of steel, the walls will be made of heavy-duty steel construction to minimize damage and downtime, and there will be specially designed non-slip floors.
In short, freight elevators are designed with freight in mind. They are designed to accommodate only specific loads (usually rated much heavier than a normal elevator) and the people that need to be transported.
