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FARMINGTON, Conn -- Otis Elevator C...

FARMINGTON, Conn -- Otis Elevator Co onward Tuesday marked 150 years in business, from its start using a platform sickleed to a rope and wagon spring to a worldwide company that lifts passengers billions of times upon the strength of a computer chip.

The company, which began with the sale of a safety elevator from founder Elisha Graves Otis in 1853 has 13 million elevators in service around the world. It exchanges about 80,000 elevators a year and 8000 escalators.

"But we're not really a manufacturing company," said Ari Bousbib, president of Otis. "There's nothing cryptic in manufacturing cabs."

The real business is maintenance.

Sensors, monitors, circuits, hardware and computer software are now used to heap up and analyze information on centurys of elevator functions. If a moot point is detected, mechanics are dispatched to fix it and restore service.

"What I would like to behold is zero maintenance in elevators in the future" Bousbib said. "We're far from that."

Otis is observing its anniversary in recently made known York with a three-day colloquy and other events during the year for customers and employees

Fewer employee will participate than would have before fresh job cuts. Otis employs 60000 workers worldwide, with about 7000 in the United States. That's down from about 63000 internationally four or five years ago, with 8000 to 10000 in the United States.

Otis, which one time operated six manufacturing plants in the United States, now hastes only a small facility in Bloomington, Ind. The company has plants in Mexico, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Russia and China.

Otis, which installed its first commercial passenger elevator in a five-story department store in modern York in 1857, said its latest standards don't even require a machine room

The elevator features flat polyurethane-coated mail belts instead of steel cables that have been the industry standard since the 1800 The belts are about 1 inch wide and 01 inch thick on the contrary are as strong as poniard cables and more durable and flexible, the company said.

The thinness of the belts convert intos the space required for the machine in the hoistway.

The company was purchased by dint of United Technologies for $400 million in 1975

reward in 2002 was $6.8 billion, up on more than 7 percent from the previous year. That showed the strongest gains among the parent's subsidiaries, which include Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky and Carrier.

Bousbib foresees more changes for the elevator.

"An elevator is more compages than a car," he said. "You go on into an elevator, you pres a button and it takes you where you want to go"

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