New York’s New Hudson Yards Elevators use Draka Elevator Products’ High-Tech Cables

The biggest skyscraper in Hudson Yards, New York’s $25 billion new “city within a city” real estate development, started climbing above street level towards the sky in mid-June. When completed in 2022, 50 Hudson Yards will rise 58 floors and stand 300 meters (984 ft) tall.

The building will be the first in New York City to deploy an innovative new elevator system developed by Thyssenkrupp Elevator called TWIN, which uses two independent cars “stacked” in a single shaft – thereby saving space, cutting down on travel time, and transporting 40% more passengers. Fifty Hudson Yards will have 40 TWINs in 20 shafts.  No more long waits for an elevator.

Each TWIN elevator has its own major components and shares guide rails and landing doors in the same shaft. By reducing the number of shafts necessary, the building gains more useable floor space. TWINS have already been installed in 50 buildings around the world.

“Engineers from Prysmian Group’s Draka Elevator Products business unit worked closely with Thyssenkrupp in developing the cables that the German company’s TWIN Elevator uses to operate,” explains Sterrett Lloyd, President, Draka Elevator Products.

“The ability to partner with our customers on development is a capability that sets us apart from our competitors,” says Lloyd.

Draka Elevator Products is also supplying high tech cables to the other elevator manufacturers installing hundreds of lifts across the entire five-tower Hudson Yards development. The cables are used to provide power and communications to the car, for everything from elevator buttons and lighting to communications and safety systems. Some of these cables have optical fibers to help save space and weight.

As cities grow larger, the number of skyscrapers is increasing, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). In 2018 there were 143 towers of over 200 meters (656 ft) built or four fewer than the all-time record of 147 in 2017, the group said.  Their height is rising too, so these buildings need faster, lighter and smarter elevators.
Prysmian Group works closely with manufacturers OTIS, KONE, Schindler and Thyssenkrupp as a partner in product development in an elevator manufacturer’s seven-year development cycle.
In the installation phase, Draka Elevator Products can deliver the cables in a ready-to-use kit, made to order, because each elevator is different.

“It’s a huge value proposition we bring,” says Lloyd. “That’s why we work with all of the companies that are installing in Hudson Yards – OTIS, Thyssenkrupp and Schindler as their main provider. And I think that’s the story that sets us apart. No matter the challenge, we have established such a profitable and sound collaboration with our counterparts that they turn to us given the track record they can rely on.”

Draka Elevator Products has been involved with the world’s most notable buildings like The Shard in London, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and now Hudson Yards.

Hudson Yards is the largest private development in the history of the United States. This cluster of five skyscrapers hosting businesses, apartments, over 100 shops and restaurants, schools and theaters at the edge of midtown Manhattan began to open in March. Firms including JP Morgan, Amazon, Time Warner, CNN, HBO and BlackRock have moved or plan to move to this glittering new area.  When finished, Hudson Yards will be bigger than the World Trade Center, Rockefeller Center or the United Nations.

Products supplied to 50 Hudson Yards by Draka Elevator Products include Special Hoistway Cables, special Fibre Optic cables and connectors, special wireway and accessories, special junction boxes, 3,650 meters (12,000 feet) of Cat7 cables, and connectors.

“The Hudson Yards project is just the latest example of Draka Elevator Products’ ability to listen to customers and develop products that meet their needs, ” says Kyle Hendren, Global Marketing & Product Manager, Draka Elevator Products.
Working with sister company MMS, Draka Elevator Products developed the Cat5e-equivalent elevator travel cable to meet customer requests over the years to connect IP devices within the elevator cab.  

“Due to minimum wire sizes mandated by code, it wasn’t as simple as adding standard horizontal UTP cable into the traveling cable,” says Hendren. “We developed the one and only cable product of specially-insulated pairs that meet the Cat5e performance criteria and put these elements into a traveling cable.”