Escalator
Escalators in a Copenhagen Metro station,
2007.
An escalator is a moving staircase conveyor
transport device for carrying people between
floors of a building. The device consists of a
motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps
that move up or down on tracks, allowing the
step treads to remain horizontal.
Escalators are used around the world to
move pedestrian traffic in places where elev-
ators would be impractical. Principal areas of
usage include department stores, shopping
malls, airports, transit systems, convention
centers, hotels, and public buildings.
The benefits of escalators are many. They
have the capacity to move large numbers of
people, and they can be placed in the same
physical space as one might install a stair-
case. They have no waiting interval (except
during very heavy traffic), they can be used
to guide people toward main exits or special
exhibits, and they may be weatherproofed for
outdoor use.
In 2004, it was estimated that the United
States had 30,000 escalators, and that people
used escalators 90 billion times each year.[1]
Design, components, and
operation
Operation and layout
Escalators,
like moving walkways,
are
powered by constant-speed alternating cur-
rent motors and move at approximately 1–2
feet (0.30–0.61 m) per second. The maximum
angle of inclination of an escalator to the ho-
rizontal floor level is 30 degrees with a stand-
ard rise up to about 60 feet (18 m). Modern
escalators have single piece aluminum or
steel steps that move on a system of tracks in
a continuous loop.
A typical "parallel" escalator layout.
A "crisscross" layout for escalators.
Escalators have three typical configuration
options: parallel (up and down escalators
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Escalator
1
An example of "multiple parallel" escalator
setup.
"side by side or separated by a distance",
seen often
in multilevel motion picture
theatres), crisscross (minimizes structural
space requirements by "stacking" escalators
that go in one direction, frequently used in
department stores or