Electronics

Mitsubishi Electric installs elevators to carry 80, possibly the world's largest

View 3 Images
View gallery - 3 images

If you've ever been annoyed by the impatiently waiting for an office building elevator, this might just be the perfect building for you. Each of the new elevators installed by Mitsubishi Electric in Umeda Hankyu Building’s new office area in Osaka, Japan measures 11.2 x 9.2 feet in area by 8.5 feet high (3.4m wide, 2.8m long and 2.6m high). This allows for a whopping 80 person capacity, or over 11,500 pounds (specifically a 5,250kg load according to the company). Do some quick math, and that means that these five elevators alone can move up to 400 people at once.

And if you think that being crammed into an elevator with 79 other people sounds a little uncomfortable, take solace in the fact that the car does have glass windows, allowing you to enjoy the view as you're going up. The elevator connects the lower department store portion of the building, on floors B2 through 13, and the upper offices, from floors 15 through 41.

When I asked a Mitsubishi representative if this was indeed the world's largest elevator, he could only confirm that "these are the largest capacity passenger elevators to date in Japan". In my own personal research, I have yet to find a bigger one worldwide.

Via Mitsubishi Electric

View gallery - 3 images
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Flipboard
  • LinkedIn
7 comments
rseifer
This is truly an amazing technological and scientific breakthrough. It was previously only imaginable but unachievable that a single fart could render more than 75 people unconscious. Ralph L. Seifer, Long Beach, California
windykites
won\'t there be a problem with people getting in and out at different floors?
In Rogers Head
11.2 x 9.2 feet in area by 8.5 feet high - so how soon will it be that the senior staff get an office in an elevator? Drive into their underground parking spot, step out of the car and into the office, need to meet someone, the office moves to a diffrent floor, need lunch, the office moves to a senior staff lunch room, the privete gym, the VP only rest rooms, the penhouse crash pad. I guess laterial movment would also help!
Gadgeteer
I\'ve been stuck in an elevator alone for 30 minutes before. It wasn\'t awful, but it sure wasn\'t fun. I\'d hate to be stuck with 80 other people.
The photo reminds me a little of the elevator in the starport in the movie, \"Galaxy Quest.\"
Facebook User
I know this building. Even though I am a \"gaijin\" living here and of American OVERsize, I can see how 80 Japanese would have no problem using this. It is amazing how more than that number, walker & bicyclist, cross a street in a \"downtown\" area without problem. All that said, have to go check this out sometime.
alcalde
\" Drive into their underground parking spot, step out of the car and into the office, need to meet someone, the office moves to a diffrent floor,\"

Forget needing to step out of the car and into the office. On an episode of \"Unnatural History\", someone who needed to get somewhere really quickly simply drove his Smart Car straight into the building\'s elevator! he also drove it down a hallway. If Japan\'s big on Smart Cars, they might be the final mechanical component needed in your mobile office vision.
Forward Thinker
Looks like a good idea for an express elevator, but I would hate to be one of the 80 people each going to a different floor in a tall building.