ThyssenKrupp’s maglev elevator test tower almost ready

The 761-foot concrete tower will enable the manufacturer to test its maglev elevator prototypes. The new elevators will be moved by magnets, allowing for vertical and horizontal movement of multiple cars in one shaft.

By Adilla Menayang, Assistant Digital Editor | August 5, 2015

Elevator manufacturing giant ThyssenKrupp announced its plans to develop a rope-free elevator last year. These new elevators will instead be moved by magnets, allowing for vertical and horizontal movement of multiple cars in one shaft.

Now, according to Popsci, the multinational conglomerate is nearly finished constructing a test tower for these elevator prototypes, called Multi, in the company’s homeland of Germany.

The location of Rottweil, in the Black Forest, was selected because of its proximity to the “roughly ten thousand engineering students” enrolled in universities in Stuttgart and Konstanz, and the Swiss cities of St. Gallen, Zürich, and Winterthur.

The building is 761 feet high made out of concrete. It has 12 elevator shafts, three of which will be used to test the Multi elevators.

“Cutting the cord will allow architects to build taller buildings, as well as elevators that can travel sideways as well as vertically,” Popsci reports.

According to Gizmodo, the facility will also be used to test super fast elevators that travel up to 60 feet per second.

The tower is designed by German architect Helmut Jahn. Construction was done using a technique called slipforming, where workers continuously pour concrete into formwork at a fast pace.

The tower will eventually be cloaked “in a twisting, lightweight white façade,” Gizmodo reports.

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