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Getting a Lift from Vacuum

Posted June 20, 2014 12:00 AM by Engineering360 eNewsletter

Aging baby boomers who lose mobility can also lose access to the upper floors of their homes. A chair lift can get the elderly and disabled upstairs, but high costs and the difficulties involved in getting in and out of the chair make this a less-than-ideal option, notes the author of this Hydraulics & Pneumatics article. His preferred alternative: a pneumatic elevator featuring a passenger cabin that's lifted by vacuum. The story explains how the technology works, why it beats conventional elevators, and why vacuum was chosen over compressed air to give the disabled a lift.

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phoenix911
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#1

Re: Getting a Lift from Vacuum

06/20/2014 7:08 AM

Meet George Jetson......

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brich
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#2

Re: Getting a Lift from Vacuum

06/21/2014 12:32 PM

search CR4 for this.. this is one very old chestnut that was put to death months ago!

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ronseto
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#3

Re: Getting a Lift from Vacuum

06/21/2014 6:58 PM

Sounds like a great idea. I live in a single story house and not yet confined to a wheelchair, so no sale.

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lyn
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#4

Re: Getting a Lift from Vacuum

06/22/2014 12:26 AM

Sorry, Charlie. This is way stupid for a house.

I'm just not willing to saw a 5 foot diameter hole in my ceiling.

A typical bedroom is 10x12 feet. Where will you put it? The hallway?

After paying someone to install it (remember, your are in a wheelchair) you may as well just move.

Oh, this way you don't have to dig a pit for the piston?

If I ever need one of these, just shoot me.
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tcmtech
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#5
In reply to #4

Re: Getting a Lift from Vacuum

06/22/2014 8:15 AM

I'm figuring on just taking a old forklift mast and reworking that into a house when I get to that point.

As far as pump sound goes the odds are when I am at the point of being too feeble to manage a flight of stairs on my own I will likely also be too deaf to be concerned about what sort of hydraulic pump noise it makes plus aesthetics wise I will likely also be too blind to care about what it looks like anyway. I

It goes up. It goes down. It looks like a it came from a junk yard and it scares the crap out of the cats and the neighbors dog every time I use it. That will always make me happy no matter how old I am!
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#6

Re: Getting a Lift from Vacuum

06/22/2014 8:25 AM

If I ever need to do this I'll just put one of these outside and cut a couple of doors into the walls.

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passingtongreen
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#7

Re: Getting a Lift from Vacuum

06/22/2014 8:28 AM

A dumb idea as demonstrated above, my gripe is that there are still plenty of pre-boomers around, why not just say, "older people"?

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phoenix911
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#8

Re: Getting a Lift from Vacuum

06/23/2014 7:18 AM

Excuse me, can you tell me where the vacuum lift is?..........

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