Abstract
Safety Gears, which stop elevators by mechanical braking in emergency states, are indispensable to all elevators. Shoes in the safety gears are pressed against the guide rails of the elevators to brake. Consequently, the temperature of the shoes rises with the speed of elevators. Toshiba developed world's fastest elevator running at the speed of 1010 m/min. In this speed, the temperature of the shoes was estimated to be over 1000 C by the friction, which implied that the conventional metal shoes could not be used. Accordingly, the development of ceramic shoes was essential. Based on many friction data of various ceramics, ceramic composites were designed to achieve high thermal shook resistance and high friction coefficient at high temperatures and the world's fastest elevator was achieved. This elevator is running in the Taipei 101 building.
