Heavy freight & vehicle lifts
Global Switch II, London, UK.
In 2001 Alimak Hek Ltd, was asked to design and construct a large goods lift for an IT company.
Located in London, England, the building, named Global Switch II, is Europe’s largest purpose built internet data centre covering an area of 679,000 square feet and housing some 2,000,000 computer servers.
The brief was to design a goods lift that could be used to move office furniture, electrical components and materials for the building maintenance, such as generators and air conditioning units. The lift is the main artery for all large goods and therefore the primary consideration was a robust and reliable design. The brief posed many new challenges for the technical departments both in Sweden and the UK. The first real challenge was the unique scale of the contract. The lift measured 3.18m deep, 6.0m wide, and 2.8m high, and had a total lifting capacity of 7500kg or 100 passengers.
As with all Alimak hoists and lifts, the drive unit was housed on the lift car itself, so no separate machine room was needed. To enable access to the highest landing and with the limited headroom available, a special bottom drive assembly was designed.
The lift has been in use since February 2002 and has given the client very reliable service. When asked for their thoughts as to the success of the lift, our client said: “We are extremely pleased with our decision to purchase the lift from Alimak, and we are impressed with the amount of work the lift is handling with the utmost reliability.” The success of this lift culminated in Elevator World Magazine awarding the unit the worldwide ‘Project of the Year’, which acted as great recognition for the technical expertise and ability that went into designing and installing such a unique lift.
Downloads
Global Switch II Reference sheet