Interlift 2023

Eye catcher in Hall 1: The new Q 1.7 attracts a lot of attention

Thoma Aufzüge presented itself at the Augsburg trade fair as a specialist for special systems and controls and introduced its innovative lift concept

Small groups formed around the illu­mi­nated glass shafts with the large red “Q 1.5” and “Q 1.7” name­plates visible from afar. Our Q‑series systems were among the crowd favou­rites at the latest Inter­lift in Augs­burg in October and provided plenty to talk about among trade visi­tors and exhi­bi­tors who headed for the Thoma Aufzüge stand in Hall 1. Nume­rous smart­phones were pulled out and filmed as the low-main­ten­ance toothed belt drives moved the slowly gliding plat­form of the Q 1.5 and the much faster cabin of the Q 1.7 up and down in conti­nuous operation.

A number of curious visi­tors could not resist and also took a test drive. Many appre­cia­tive comm­ents and the great inte­rest shown by poten­tial private and commer­cial custo­mers confirmed our commit­ment to continue focus­sing on quality and inno­va­tion — also with our special systems.

Visi­tors to the trade fair were able to marvel at how versa­tile we are in reali­sing indi­vi­dual customer wishes thanks to our in-house metal produc­tion and our exten­sive exper­tise on several screens and a large picture gallery. The ques­tion “And you build all of that yourself?” was often asked when they learnt that Thoma, as a medium-sized company, manu­fac­tures many essen­tial compon­ents itself, from indi­vi­dual compon­ents to shaft equip­ment, control systems and custo­mised cabins and can offer almost any custo­mised solu­tion regard­less of stan­dard dimen­sions. Passenger lifts with a minimal floor plan, round, glazed cabins, spacious cages for loads weig­hing tonnes — the pictures on our stand spoke for them­selves. We also present many other examples at http://www.thoma-aufzuege.de/referenzen/.

At the trade fair, we also presented a sample of our latest control system gene­ra­tion TMS 320, which has been in opera­tion for more than two years and with which we have already equipped around 50 lift systems. With this so-called bus control system, in which infor­ma­tion between indi­vi­dual units and the central computer is only trans­mitted digi­tally via the bus lines, many tech­nical features can be imple­mented, inclu­ding the divi­sion into a control computer and a car computer and the linking of each to a floor computer. It also allows the hard­ware in control systems and the size of control cabi­nets to be reduced. Further advan­tages include digital path recor­ding (shaft copying) and an improved fault memory.

The inten­sive deve­lo­p­ment work for our Q series now seems to be gradu­ally paying off. It began with the endea­vour to realise simple retro­fits on a very small foot­print with a very low shaft pit and led to the deve­lo­p­ment of the Thoma Lifter Q 1.2 and Q 1.5, compact plat­form lifts in accordance with the Machi­nery Direc­tive, which we supply as a complete compo­nent with a finished glass shaft and can install within one to two working days. The “Q” stands for the square floor plan, the numbers indi­cate the shaft’s external dimen­sions — 1.2 or 1.5 metres depen­ding on the model, whereby the compact design means that a large propor­tion of the floor space (76%) is taken up by the plat­form. Another special feature: access points can be arranged on all four sides of the shaft.
As specia­lists for special systems and control units, we have now used this as a basis to develop a passenger lift that complies with the Lift Direc­tive, i.e. with a closed lift car and auto­matic sliding doors as well as a higher travel speed, the Q 1.7. Its proto­type already caused a stir at the Inter­lift in spring 2022.

We have now presented the finished model of the Q 1.7 at the inter­na­tional trade fair, which is charac­te­rised above all by the light­weight cons­truc­tion of the cabin. This means that the original lift, which can only be operated by “dead man’s control” at a speed of just 0.15 metres per second, has matured into a fully-fledged lift for ever­yone. The digital BUS control system in the shaft head ensures that the cabin travels to up to twelve stops with milli­metre precision and without any craw­ling. The Q 1.7 trans­ports the maximum payload of 675 kg or 9 people to a height of up to 20 metres in one metre per second. The tried-and-tested arran­ge­ment of access points on all four sides of the lift system is also possible. The Q 1.7 is also available with “simple” through-loading in a rectan­gular shape with variable dimen­sions. As with all Q models, we manu­fac­ture the scaf­fol­ding from alumi­nium for a durable outdoor design.
http://www.thoma-lifter.de/