Business news

MOGILEV, 7 December (BelTA) – The Mogilev-based lift manufacturer OAO Mogilevliftmash intends to start making travelators in 2018, the company’s Chief Engineer Igor Frolkin told BelTA.

A prototype travelator (a moving walkway) has been made in association with Chinese partners. The product has passed electromagnetic compatibility tests in line with the relevant technical regulations on safe machines and equipment. Acceptance and certification tests are in progress now. They will be finished by the end of the month.

A travelator is a more modern and functional replacement for classic escalators aka moving staircases, which the company started making in 2017 and already offers in Russia. The travelator allows users to travel in a horizontal direction and a vertical one. While an escalator has steps, the surface of a travelator is absolutely even. This is why travelators are more convenient for wheelchairs, prams, cargo trolleys, and other kinds of luggage. Besides, travelators can handle more passengers than escalators.

According to Igor Frolkin, travelators are popular and are in demand all over the world. “Our partners, who invite tenders to buy escalators, also consider buying travelators. This is why we now offer travelators in order to keep customers and be competitive,” noted the chief engineer.

For now the moving walkways are assembled primarily using imported components but work is in progress to gradually replace them with domestics.

The Mogilev-based company Mogilevliftmash is a leading manufacturer of lift equipment in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The company offers passenger lifts (225-1,275kg), freight lifts (100-6,300kg), mixed-type lifts, lifts for hospitals and custom-design lifts in addition to lift equipment and spare parts for repairing, replacing, and modernizing outmoded lifts. The company also makes consumer goods and equipment unrelated to lifts. The enterprise was established in 1966 and reincorporated as a public joint-stock company (OAO) in 2013. At present the company employs about 4,500 people.