A cargo elevator is used to carry, lift, elevate or freight goods rather than people. It is what the name itself already implies. Speaking of freight, the other term or name for this is freight elevator. The main function of this is to carry goods instead of people, although it is possible to carry both at the same time.
Because of its intended purpose, it is known to be far larger than other variants. It can also carry more weight than those designed primarily to service humans. These things are often custom designed for warehouses, shopping centers among other large scale facilities that it is likely to serve.
The designs are often based on factors like the dimensions needed, the total amount of weight that it is to carry and how goods are to be loaded and unloaded. Other factors include whether or not it will be carried by hand or by some form of transportation. A heavy duty elevator can even hold a truck.
Oftentimes, they have a manual door. There may even be multiple doors in order to load from both the front and the rear. Some can even be opened from the sides. Sometimes, the insides are unfinished, which is done purposely due to all the loading and unloading, which may damage a finished one horribly.
These are similar to the ones designed for human because these can be traction or hydraulic. The traction ones make use of steel ropes. They are then pulled along deeply grooved pulleys. The hydraulic ones make use of a piston so the it can be pushed from below.
Both of these types need some kind of counter weighting. This is normally accomplished by placing another car at the end of the ropes. The hydraulic lifts are much cheaper but they are slow and are not capable of being built up as high as the traction variant. Hydraulics also leak oil, which is a concern for environmentalists.
One of the earliest recorded uses of a cargo elevator was in Roman and Egyptian civilizations. Simple pulley systems were used to lift building materials. By the nineteenth century, the designs took off, with the lifts being powered with the newly discovered steam as well as hydraulic pistons. These eventually took off in terms of popularity.
The smallest ones are usually called dumbwaiters. These are found in two story buildings in order for household goods to be moved back and forth. Examples would be laundry or dishes. The older versions were pulled manually, but modern versions has electric motors to do that function.
