The Performance of Multi-Car Linear Motor Elevators

Since a long time, ropeless linear motor elevators with several cars in each hoistway have been proposed as a way to increase the handling capacity, by allowing both vertical and horizontal movements, so that cars could circulate or bypass each other. If horizontal movement is not needed, the multi-car system becomes more simple and feasible. However, in such a system there are many constraints on the car movements, so the performance gain is not evident. We have developed a simulator system to analyze multi-car linear motor elevators. Here we report on the results, which show such systems would have clear advantages.