The new Universite de Montreal Hospital Center in Montreal has awarded the elevator company KONE to install a total of 77 elevators and escalators. The hospital hopes to better manage the flow of people and materials throughout the building and enhance the patient-centered design and spatial efficiencies.

The contract includes the elevator company installing several different energy-efficient elevators and escalators. KONE will install 45 energy-efficient EcoSystem MR elevators, 14 MonoSpace machine room-less elevators and 12 TravelMaster 110 escalators. KONE will also be installing four dumbwaiters and two hydraulic elevators. Ten of the elevators will be equipped with control integration for Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV), to ensure deliveries of service, food, linens, and medical supplies are efficiently conducted during light traffic hours. The contract also includes a long term maintenance contract.

CEO of KONE Larry Wash said this about the new contract with the Montreal Hospital Center;

“KONE is pleased to provide energy-efficient elevator and escalator solutions that will assist with CHUM’s patient-centered design. Our extensive research and focus on this area will enable patients, hospital staff, and visitors to move smoothly and safely throughout the hospital.”

The new hospital will be a 230,000 square meter facility that is expected to serve over 400,000 patients a year in its 772 single patient rooms, ambulatory and diagnostic centers, surgery, intensive car, clinical laboratories, and research center. The hospital is expected to be completed by 2020.

Many hotels, restaurants, and bakeries use dumbwaiters to easily and efficiently move food between floors. As an aid to servers, dumbwaiters are used to make things easier. In China they are giving up the dumbwaiter in exchange for robots.

At Robot Restaurant in downtown Harbin, China, you will get a dining experience like no other. Servers at this restaurant rely on high tech version of the dumbwaiter. When you enter the restaurant, you are greeted by the host who says, “Greetings Earth Person! Welcome to Robot Restaurant!” The robot host welcomes you with open arms and is your first, but not last, meeting with a mechanical employee. Once you sit down, your robot server will come and take your party’s order. When your food is ready, your robot server will drop off the meal to your table. All of the robots have different names and personalities. The “Singing Robot” may come to your table and sing a song while you eat. There is even a mechanical dog that can sit at the tables and entertain children. All of the robots move across a track on the floor and run on electricity.

Food can be delivered at Robot Restaurant by the mechanical servers or by a conveyor belt that is suspended in the air. Similar to the conveyor system used at Yo! Sushi in Japan, Robot Restaurant sets the bar a little higher with their conveyor belt. Suspended in the air, the conveyor belt can get the food to the correct table and then mechanized arms set the food onto the table.

The robots are given breaks after the busy hours to recharge their batteries. They can work for up to 5 hours before they need a break, which is longer than some humans! However, each robot costs around $40,000 dollars, which is more than double what the average human server would make in a year. The Robot Restaurant offers a large menu of over 30 dishes. With a bright and inviting décor, the Robot Restaurant is definitely a fun place to eat.

The idea for the restaurant came from the success of a restaurant called Dalu Rebot Restaurant in Jinan. Dalu Rebot Restaurant opened in 2010 and has robots that resemble Star Wars androids that wander around.

The restaurant’s next endeavor is to have robots developed that can help with kitchen chores such as washing the dishes. They also hope to up upgrade their current server robots to be able to refill people’s drinks. Fortunately, even with all the robot workers, the food is still prepared by good old fashioned humans!

When Thomas Jefferson installed one of the world’s first dumbwaiters at Monticello, he maximized the ability to move objects quickly between floors without having to walk up a set of stairs. To this day, dumbwaiters are still used for this purpose, moving from wooden cable installations to the modern day mechanical, engine-driven style. Dumbwaiters, in fact, are experiencing a renaissance of sorts, becoming a main source of efficiency for many businesses like restaurants and hotels.

Nationwide Lifts is a provider of premier Jeeves Dumbwaiters, named for the butler who made life easier for many in P.G. Wodehouse’s novels and short stories. These top-of-the-line dumbwaiters truly offer elegance and simple transport for those who need them. The styles offered are:

Jeeves Dumbwaiter – With the ability to lift as little as 75 pounds all the way up to 250 pounds, the Jeeves Dumbwaiter is the perfect choice for those seeking a lower freight capacity for laundry, food, etc. This particular dumbwaiter features a 35 foot height maximum with 4 stops. The finished birch construction fits in beautifully in houses and small inns.

Jeeves Pro Dumbwaiter – This pro version of the Jeeves Dumbwaiter is built to handle a significantly bigger load than the former – up to 500 pounds. For this reason, the Pro comes with two different types of interlocking door gates – a roll-up gate for the 125- and 250-pound versions and a scissor gate for the 500 pound version.  This type of dumbwaiter might be seen at a hotel, primarily used as a way to transport clean laundry and supplies up or down the floors.

Jeeves RST Dumbwaiter – If you are looking for a dumbwaiter made specifically for the food industry, you would do well with the RST. It comes standard with a stainless steel cab and the primary feature of all Jeeves Dumbwaiters – complete UL certification.

If you walk into an older home or building featuring a few stories, there’s a good chance you will see a dumbwaiter or a shaft meant for a dumbwaiter. Depending on the age of the building, you may see a newer era, motorized dumbwaiter or an older, hand-pulley system dumbwaiter. No matter the age of the dumbwaiter, one can easily see its usefulness in a multi-story home.

It’s relatively easy to see a dumbwaiter for what it is – at a base level, dumbwaiters are exactly like elevators, just on a much smaller scale. Instead of carrying people, a dumbwaiter generally carries items from floor to floor without placing stress on the homeowner, housekeeper, or other occupant. For instance, a home dumbwaiter can be used to carry laundry from bedrooms on the top floor down to the basement laundry room without having to fumble around with a laundry basket.

Don’t forget that there are also commercial dumbwaiters, primarily used as a tool at restaurants and hotels. If there is room service at a hotel, a dumbwaiter may be better suited for delivery purposes due to the constraints of elevators. The same goes for the linen changing service – cleaning staff could simply load dirty sheets and other garments into a dumbwaiter and send the linens directly down to the laundry area.

Much like elevators, dumbwaiters feature many safety devices that ensure secure delivery of items while maintaining safety for those utilizing this helpful household tool. Usually made out of steel (and wood in the past), dumbwaiters are equipped with emergency stop buttons for automatic shut-down in case of emergencies. Dumbwaiters also have tracking systems and speed systems that alert users to the position of the dumbwaiter within the shaft, should there be an issue. Finally, most dumbwaiters feature a key lock that disables usage during off-times.

Dumbwaiters are designed for commercial and residential uses, and the standard Jeeves dumbwaiter is designed for the latter. Dumbwaiters are ideal for moving items between floors – although not people – and Jeeves dumbwaiters come in three sizes to meet your needs. All Jeeves dumbwaiters come in three different sizes: 75 pounds, 125 pounds, and 250 pounds, with customized sizes available in this range. Other features for this dumbwaiter are:

• A motorized operation, with minimal installation and maintenance needed.
• An LCD display that shows the current operation and allows for troubleshooting.
• A pre-wired design to make installation quicker and easier.
• UL certification. Jeeves dumbwaiters are the only models in the United States that have this certification.
• A finished birch cab with dovetail joints and steel call buttons.
• A commercial-grade rail system to move between floors.
• Ability to move at 30 feet per minute, with 35 feet and four stops being the maximum distance the dumbwaiter can travel.
• 115 volt operation.
• Multiple safety devices, such as a slack cable, final limit, trolley brake, and interlock door.
• A roll-up door on the cab.

Adding an electric dumbwaiter to your home increases its value, if you plan on selling your current home one day. Common uses for the dumbwaiters includes moving foor, drinks, laundry, groceries, firewood, books, and more.