French lift manufacturer MND has unveiled a new model of gondola lift, ORIZON™, which it says will be able to double the capacity of existing lifts.
MND's say they have invested 20 million Euros in creating its ORIZON™ lift, designing it to be able to carry a wide range of configurations, from 6-seater chairlifts with or without bubble to 10, 16 and 20-seat gondolas, and capacities of up to 8,000 people per hour and per direction at speeds of up to 7 metres per second.
That's faster than the typical 6 metres per second of existing gondolas which usually have 2,000-4,000 hourly uplift capacities.
MND say that special attention has been paid in ORIZON™'s design to optimising the installation's energy consumption, in particular by recovering and using the energy produced by the gravity transport system, the automatic eco-driving system to adapt to flows in real time, the recovery of heat to heat the buildings and the integration of solutions to produce renewable solar energy.
MND is celebrating its 20th anniversary this winter and the company is rapidly expanding, with plans to add another 100 employees this year.