Set in the Halo Building, One Mabledon Place, this project required us to design, supply and install a bank of four 20kg capacity automatic dumbwaiter service lifts. With automatic loading and unloading, these lifts facilitate the near touchless transportation of blood and tissue samples between floors within this high-rise laboratory.
Halo is the Healthcare Services Laboratories’ flagship facility. Spread over 11 floors and home to more than 1,000 staff, it has dedicated clinical and non-clinical cores for vertical connectivity.
We were involved with this project from the very beginning, working with Steffian Bradley Architects and Sheridan Lifts.
These lifts service 7 out of the 11 floors within the building, with the possible expansion onto the currently unused floors.
Halo Building, Automatic Dumbwaiter Service Lifts
The lifts run at 1 meter per second with a Variable Voltage Variable Frequency Drive. This VVVF Drive provides smoother acceleration and deceleration.
The system also uses an open-loop tachograph to ensure the delicate cargo is delivered precisely to floor level ‘to the millimetre’ and in perfect condition.
The vertical bi-parting shutters open and close automatically, and the trays are fed into the lifts by a powered roller conveyor in front of each lift. Inside the lift is a powered belt conveyor that then unloads the trays onto the lower gravity-fed roller table.
This ensures that the laboratory technicians do not have to wait with a sample. They place it onto the tray and walk away, knowing it will be delivered to the required destination.
There is a maintenance area on the top floor where the controllers and drives are located. The floor also provides one of the best machine room views in London.
Controlled by Siemens processors, the controllers have a touchscreen interface with access to parameters and error logs and an internet connection to install software updates anywhere in the world.
Halo Building, Automatic Dumbwaiter Service Lifts
