OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY

The 'Otis Elevator Company' is the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems, principally elevators and escalators. Founded in Yonkers, New York, USA in 1853 by Elisha Otis, the company pioneered the development of the safety elevator, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail. Otis made skyscrapers possible by providing safe mechanical transport to upper floors.
Otis has installed elevators in some of the world's famous structures, including the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, World Trade Center, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Petronas Twin Towers, CN Tower and the Skylon Tower
Statistically, Otis is the world's most popular transportation company^[1]. It is estimated that the equivalent of the world's population travel in Otis elevators, escalators and moving walkways every three days. According to United Technologies, Otis elevators carry the equivalent of the world's population every nine days.^[2]
Otis was acquired by United Technologies in 1976 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary. The company has over 60,000 employees, with 2004 revenue of US$9.0 billion. The company headquarters are located in Farmington, Connecticut.
Otis has also dabbled in horizontal automated people-mover "shuttle" systems. In 1996, Otis formed a joint venture called Poma-Otis Transportation Systems with the French company Pomagalski to promote these products.
Otis Elevator Company purchased 'Express Evans Lifts' in the UK. Evans Lifts was the oldest and largest manufacturer of lift equipment in the UK and was based in Leicester, England before being acquired by Express Lifts of Northampton, to be known as Express Evans Lifts. Otis' Customer Care Centre is still based in the old Express Evans Lifts building in Leicester. The building has since been extended by Otis.
There are still some installations of Evans Lifts being used today. Notably, an original Evans Lift is still in the Silver Arcade in Leicester. It formerly transported people to the upper floors, but the upper floors are no longer occupied so the lift is no longer used.

Contents

Gen2 Elevator

Factory locations

Trivia

See also

External links

References

Gen2 Elevator

The latest innovation from Otis represents the first major breakthrough in lifting technology in nearly 100 years. The new technology employs a smaller sheave than conventional elevators, together with a redesigned machine, allows the machine to be mounted within the hoistway itself—eliminating the need for a bulky machine room on the roof.
The other major breakthrough on the Gen2 Elevators, are the flat polyurethane-coated steel belts that replace the heavy, woven steel cables that have been the industry standard since the 1800s. The belts make the smaller sheave possible. They are approximately 0.1 inch (3 mm) thick, yet they are as strong as woven steel cables and far more durable, flexible and space-saving.
The Gen2 Elevator is the machine-room-less rival to the KONE Monospace, Schindler 400A, and ThyssenKrupp ISIS elevators.

Factory locations

★ Berlin, Germany

★ Breclav, Czech Republic

★ Gien, France

★ Madrid, Spain

★ Nogales

★ Shibayama, Japan

★ Guangzhou, China

★ Tianjin, China

★ São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil

★ Bangalore, India

★ Puebla, Mexico

★ Kirkby, Merseyside, England

★ Changwon, South Korea
Otis had a large factory in Harrison, New Jersey, USA.
They also manufactured hydraulic elevators under the "Esco" name in Fort Worth until the early 1990's.

Trivia

★ The Otis Elevator Company was featured in an episode of ''How Do They Do It?''.

★ An episode in the second season of the TV series ''Prison Break'' is named after the Otis Elevator Company.

★ There is an Otis Elevator Company testing site in Bristol, Connecticut. The sight of a tall skyscraper in this desolate area is found to be startling to some.

★ Otis was the secret word that comedian Artie Lange had with his deceased father, to be predicted by a psychic ala Harry Houdini. The word was deciphered by mentalist Marc Salem on the June 26, 2007 Howard Stern Show. Artie’s grandfather was a laborer for Otis when his father was a child.

See also

★ Otis Elevating Railway

★ ThyssenKrupp

★ Schindler Group

★ KONE

External links

★ Official website

★ Otis website referencing the name 'Waygood-Otis Ltd' previously used in the UK

★ Poma-Otis official website

References

1. [1], ''UTC Fact Sheet''
2. [2], ''
Otis Marks 150th Anniversary of the Modern Elevator'' April 1, 2003.