Elevator counterweight design and stress analysis

Elevator systems, seen as luxury items in the past, today compulsory in buildings five stories and higher, are the fastest growing mechanisms of vertical transport sector in parallel to technology. Elevator dimensions are entirely determined according to requirement, higher capacity or two or more elevators are built when the number of people who will make use of the elevator increases in a building. Capacity increase gives the materials to be used in its construction more significance, those that are more durable, light and economic are preferred.In this study, development of elevator systems until today are discussed first; afterwards, elevator parts are introduced and briefly explained and finally, elevator counterweight design studies and related analyses are carried out. Elevator counterweight is part of the system, which enables its movement and balances the system. In the design studies, economic aspects, as well as, counterweight strength are considered as the criteria for the optimum design.In carrying out the studies, calculations have been done in order to determine the types and intensities of loads the elevator counterweight will be subjected to. Software program SolidWorks has been utilized for designing the counterweight and the analyses are carried out in CosmosWorks, which operates in tandem with SolidWorks and based on FEM (Finite Elements Method). Short introductions of softwares SolidWorks and CosmosWorks are also included in this study, along with the reasons of why they have been employed.In the final stage of the study, comments have been made on the results of the analyses, by also taking into consideration the economic aspects, a new elevator counterweight design has been proposed.