Mitsubishi’s new elevator, the world’s fastest, to debut in China’s tallest building

When the 121-story Shanghai Tower opens later this year, it will be crowned the tallest building in China. Though it will only be the second tallest in the world at 632 meters, after Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (828 meters), Shanghai Tower will boast its own global superlative: its elevators will be the fastest on the planet.

Mitsubishi Electric’s research and development division hosted an open house in Tokyo today, where the Japanese firm showed off a simulation of its “ultra-high-speed elevator.” The aluminum and carbon fiber elevator cars, designed to reduce wind resistance like a high-end Italian supercar, will propel visitors to Shanghai Tower from the B2 level to the building’s 119th floor in just 55 seconds. Thanks to what the firm calls its “New Active Roller Guide System,” which features an array of nine vibration sensors, the elevator can reach a maximum speed of 1,080 meters per minute (64.8 km/h) with almost no shaking. It achieves this by applying force in the opposite direction of a vibration in order to cancel it out.

While it’s impossible to test the actual elevator until Shanghai Tower’s anticipated summer opening, Mitsubishi designed a simulation that recreates the vibration a rider would experience while traveling at such a high speed without the appropriate vibration resistance technology. At full speed, it felt like riding on a zig-zagging subway car. A packed elevator would turn into a mosh pit without seats or handles to hang on to. With the system activated, the car’s back and forth movements were imperceptible.

A simulated view from the elevator’s highest position.

A Mitsubishi Electric spokesperson tells Tech in Asia that Shanghai Tower will feature three of the company’s ultra-high-speed elevators, each of which has a capacity of 2,000 kilograms – or roughly 28 people per car. Because of its high speed and the height of the building itself, each car features an air pressure control system to avoid hurting a passenger’s ears. The top-speed is reduced to 600 meters per minute when descending to avoid popping ears, as the chances of that happening are actually higher when moving from an area of low pressure to high pressure.

At present, the world’s fastest operational elevator – which travels at a maximum speed of 1,010 meters per minute – can be found in Taiwan’s Taipei 101 skyscraper. It is made by Mitsubishi’s domestic rival Toshiba.

Mitsubishi’s spokesperson added that, thanks to advanced vibration resistance technology, elevator speed is limited only by the height of a building, so – no pun intended – it seems that the sky’s the limit for the lifts of the future.

See: Move over SpaceX, Japan’s space elevator will be a ride to the stars