11 / 50
KONE 2015 | SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
INNOVATIONS
11
KONE’s R&D process supports innovations
Market environment and megatrends
Quality
Eco-efficiency
Safety
Concept
creation
R
es
earch
Creation of
new
produ
cts
and
s
erv
ices
REACHINg HIgH
In December 2015, KONE celebrated
the opening of one of the world’s
tallest elevator test towers. The new
36-floor tower reaches 235.6 meters,
and is centrally located at the KONE
Park manufacturing site, engineering
facility and research and development
(R&D) center in the Kunshan New
and Hi-tech Industrial Development
Zone in Eastern China. It
demonstrates our strong commitment
to developing R&D in mid- and
high-rise elevator technology. KONE is
the industry leader in China, and this
investment will further strengthen our
position in a rapidly changing market.
New innovations across our businesses
In 2015, we further strengthened our high-rise
innovation capabilities by opening one of the
tallest elevator test towers in the world at our
R&D facility in Kunshan, China. At a height of
236 meters, the Kunshan test tower is the tallest
among KONE’s testing facilities, complementing
our testing facility in Tytyri, Finland.
In India, two new elevator models for the
residential market were introduced, the KONE I
MonoSpace® and the KONE I MiniSpace™. The
new elevators are designed for low- and mid-rise
apartment buildings, providing customers and
users with improved ride comfort and eco-
efficiency as well as inspiring design.
In China, KONE extended its offering in the
affordable housing segment with the launch of
the KONE Z MiniSpace™ elevator, as well as an
updated version of the KONE TransitMaster™
140 escalator for the infrastructure segment.
In North America, we started sales of the
KONE Turnstile 100 and the RemoteCall™
application, which allows the elevator to be
called remotely from anywhere in the building
with smartphone technology.
During the year, elevator installations began
at the Jeddah Tower (formerly known as
Kingdom Tower). The world’s tallest building,
scheduled to be completed in 2018, will
be equipped with the latest technologies
including KONE UltraRope™ and high-speed
elevators which are set to make records for
the 660 meter distance they can travel in one
journey.
AWARD-WINNINg DESIgN
KONE received recognition for its
design during 2015. KONE was
awarded two design awards, the
iF Design Award and the Red Dot
Product Design Award, for its KONE
Turnstile 100 solution. KONE was
recognized in the iF Design Awards
already for the third time.
The awarded turnstile is KONE’s response to the increasing need for smarter cities and buildings as it is designed to guide
people effectively and smoothly from front entrance to desired destination.