By the evening edition.
This skyscraper near the town of Rottweil, Germany, has no windows and no offices or housing. We explain why.
At 245 meters high, it is one of the tallest buildings in Germany. The “TK Elevator Testturm”, inaugurated in 2017, is located in the heart of a forest, on the edge of the town of Rottweil. Except that no one lives there, no one works there. First clue to this apparent mystery: the skyscraper has no windows. It is actually an elevator test tower, like those found elsewhere in the world. The building has 12 test shafts that can test elevators at a speed of 18 meters per second, we can read on the website of the construction company TK Elevator, relayed by the magazine Geo .
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Tests in extreme conditions
These testing centers are a bit like “a test track for a Formula 1 team”, revealed to the American channel CNN Tomio Pihkala, technical director of Finnish elevator manufacturer Kone. “The main reason for the existence of test towers is that the verification of certain security features can only be carried out in a real environment. »
Thus, these buildings make it possible to test elevator technology in extreme conditions. For example, in the Rottweil test tower, a mass damper set in motion by two motors can simulate a hurricane or earthquake.
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Simulating the free fall of an elevator
Engineers can also simulate the free fall of an elevator. “It’s not a real elevator, but an equivalent mass…and that’s when the emergency braking system and safety device must activate to stop the elevator safely, so that no one inside gets hurt, explains Tomio Pihkala. In the test towers we increase the real operating conditions of the elevator, without the presence of normal users, it is also an excellent place to check the quality, comfort and reliability of an elevator,” he adds. Several elevator test towers are scattered around the world: the largest is the H1 tower, built by the Japanese company Hitachi, in Guanghzou, China. It measures 290 meters.
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A high test tower for testing high-speed elevators
But why are these test towers so high? This is due to the speed of modern elevators. “When you have a faster elevator, you need a taller test tower, report Tomio Pihkala. High-speed elevators move at more than 30 feet per second, and to test this type of elevator, you need enough space to accelerate to maximum speed and then decelerate. »
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A real tourist attraction
But in addition to this test function, the TK Elevator Testturm has become a real tourist attraction: visitors flock to climb to the top of the tower and admire the breathtaking view of the Black Forest. “In 30 seconds, visitors are transported to a height of 230 meters, explains Beate Höhnle, the director of the tower CNN. The ride has a speed of 8 meters per second and, on a clear day, visitors can see the Swiss Alps. » Better yet, the venue hosts an annual stair race competition, attracting over 1,000 participants.
