T ECHNICAL R EPORTS

Elevators Without a Machine Room:

the Mitsubishi GPQ Series
by Takenobu Honda and Eiji Ando*

Designed for residential/business complexes, speed and five landings. The GPQ series takes
Mitsubishi Electric GPQ Series elevators accom- up 30% less floor area than hydraulic elevators
modate all traction equipment within the eleva- and 35% less than conventional traction mod-
tor shaft, eliminating the machine room and els, allowing more floor space for income-gen-
easing architectural constraints. The 45m/min erating purposes.
models require an overhead of 3,150mm at the Table 3 compares the energy consumption of
top of the shaft, comparable with hydraulic el- the same three elevator types. Use of a perma-
evators and less than previous traction designs. nent magnet synchronous traction motor and gear-
A 60m/min model with nine-passenger capac- less drive reduces the power consumption of GPQ
ity and five landings consumes 30% less space elevators to 20% less than traction elevators.
than a comparable hydraulic model. The ride comfort of GPQ series elevators is
Table 1 lists the basic elevator types. The el- comparable to high-speed elevators thanks to a
evators target the domestic Japanese market and quiet and responsive traction motor and sophis-
comply with JIS regulations. Traction technol- ticated motor control technology.
ogy permits the elevators to handle travel dis- To simplify building structural design, the
tances up to 60m and as many as 25 landings weight of the elevator equipment is carried
compared to the 20m travel limit of hydraulic through the guide rails to the pit floor, placing
elevators. minimal loads on the top of the building.
Table 2 compares the floor space taken up by The control panel is installed in the shaft,
GPQ, hydraulic and previous traction models supporting flexibility in landing design. Call but-
assuming a 9-passenger capacity, 60m/min tons with tactile feedback, car buttons with
audible feedback and braille indications serve
riders of all abilities.
Table 1 Product Types
Type R P

Passengers 6 9 6 or 9 11, 13 or 15

Load (mass) 450kg 600kg

450 or 750, 900 Table 3 Comparative Power Consumption of
600kg or 1,000kg Mitsubishi Elevators
45 or 45, 60 or 45, 60 or 45, 60, 90 Elevator GPQ Earlier traction model
Rated speed
60m/min 90m/min 90m/min or 105m/min
Motor capacity 3.7kW 5.5kW
Maximum car travel 60m
Power feed capacity 4kVA 6kVA
Maximum landings 25
Yearly power
2,590kW.h 3,230kW.h
Drive Traction consumption

Table 2 Comparative Space Requirements of Mitsubishi Elevators

Elevator GPQ "Packaged" Series Hydraulic model Earlier traction model

Shaft
Width x depth 1.55 x 2.1m 1.65 x 2.3m 1.55 x 2.1m
Floor area used 2 2
16.3m 19.0m 16.3m2
(5 landings)

Machine room
Width x depth 0 2.4 x 1.9m 2.4 x 3.8m
Floor area used 0 4.56m2 9.12m2

Total floor area used 16.3m2 23.5m2 25.4m2

Overhead 3,200mm 3,200mm 4,450mm

*Takenobu Honda and Eiji Ando are with the Inazawa Works.

8· Mitsubishi Electric ADVANCE

 T ECHNICAL R EPORTS

Layout Guide rail (at side of car) Sheave

Fig. 1 shows a vertical section of the elevator (at side of
counterweight)
shaft. Fig. 2 shows shaft cross sections for three
elevator types. The traction machine is installed
at the base of the shaft under the guide rails

Overhead 3,150
with a sheave at the top of the guide rails. The
hoist cable also passes over pulleys at the bot- Sheave
tom of the elevator car and the top of the coun- (at side of car)
terweight. The ends of the hoist cable are fixed
Counterweight
at the top of the guide rails, one on the side of Car
the elevator car, the other at the side of the
counterweight. With this arrangement the en-
Pit depth 1,250 min. Elevator travel 30,000 max.

tire mechanical weight of the elevator is sup-

ported by the pit floor. The upward pull of the
Door height 2,000

traction motor and downward load of the sheave

compress the guide rails, relieving the building
Guide rail
of these loads. (at side of
counterweight)
Traction Machine
Fig. 3 shows the traction machine. A disk-type
brake mechanism with dual calipers is used. The Traction machine
brake is normally released by an internal elec-
tromagnet, although it can also released manu-
ally from the landings in emergencies.
Fig. 4 shows the configuration of the traction
motor and drive system. The drive system en-
sures a smooth, comfortable ride by utilising a
Fig. 1 Elevator shaft, vertical section (dimensions
in mm).

Shaft width 1,550 min. Shaft width 1,550 min.

Car interior width 1,050 Control
Car interior width 1,050 board
Car interior depth 850~1,500
Shaft depth 1,500~2,150

950
1,150 for 6 passenger model
1,520 for 9 passenger model
1,700 for 6 passenger model
2,100 for 9 passenger model

480

Shaft depth 2,350 min.

Car interior depth 1,520

Control
board
Door opening
800~900
Car interior width 1,400~1,600
Shaft width 1,800~2,150

Door opening 800 Door opening 800

a) R type b) R type with trunk c) P type

Fig. 2 Shaft cross sections (dimensions in mm).

December 1999 ·9
 T ECHNICAL R EPORTS

system that precisely controls traction motor mature current waveforms for upward operation
speed and torque. Encoder pulses provide feed- with a full load at a top speed of 60m/min.
back to the speed-control loop while armature
current and magnetic polarity serve as feedback Control Board
for the current control circuit. The control panel functions are divided between
Fig. 5 shows the speed, acceleration and ar-

Armature current

Speed

Acceleration

Fig. 3 Traction machine. Fig. 5 Operating waveforms.

Counterweight
Diode converter IGBT inverter
Car

Regenerative
3-Phase AC braking Drive
resistor Current wheel
transformer
PM
TRACTION MACHINE

ENC

Current
feedback

INTELLIGENT
POWER Gate drive circuit
MODULE
Magnetic
pole
Car travel Speed control Current control position Key
control circuit circuit circuit PM: Permanent magnet
Speed feedback synchronous motor
ENC: Encoder

Fig. 4 Drive system.

10 · Mitsubishi Electric ADVANCE

 T ECHNICAL R EPORTS

Fig. 7 Car interior.

tween the inverter and power supply unit is as

Fig. 6 Control board. short and direct as possible.
The aesthetic design of the elevators follows
that of GPS series elevators, with enhancements
landing control units on each floor and a main to the car interior, shown in Fig. 7. The ceiling
equipment enclosure at the base on the shaft. Fig. has a translucent arch with soft backlighting
6 shows a photo of the enclosure. To fit between and slit-shaped accents on either side.
the shaft wall and elevator car side wall, the vol-
ume of the main unit has been reduced by 80% in Mitsubishi GPQ series elevators combine the
a new design with an 87mm thickness and 340mm space savings of hydraulic elevators with power
width. The entire unit can be raised or lowered to efficiency even better than previous traction mod-
allow maintenance as required. els, making them desirable in buildings where floor
The size of the control panel was reduced dra- space is at a premium. ❑
matically by replacing the power supply circuit’s
line-frequency transformer with a switching
transformer and using a low-voltage DC supply
throughout. A voltage-multiplying chopper cir-
cuit provides high-voltage power for the brake
exciter circuit and door drive inverter. The thick-
ness of the traction motor’s inverter unit has
been halved by using a specially developed heat-
pipe cooling unit just 22mm thick. Wiring be-

December 1999 · 11