CANopen Lift

CAN has been used in lift control applications for many years. In 2002 several mid-size companies decided to move to the standardized higher layer protocol CANopen to allow for "plug-and-play" compatibility of devices. This capability enables  a lift manufacturer to buy devices from several smaller companies instead of just one large company. Thus several mid-size companies with specialized products can compete with large companies that offer complete lift systems. The result of the standardization efforts is the CANopen application for lifts (CiA 417), with which it is possible to build any lift application with up to 254 floors and eight parallel lifts.

The CANopen Special Interest Group (SIG) Lift is a technical working-group of the CAN in Automation (CiA) international users' and manufacturers' group that specified the CANopen application profile for lifts (CiA 417).

The CANopen Special Marketing Group Lift promotes the application profile for lift control systems.

Further information about the CANopen Lift profile is available at www.canopen-lift.org