KONE has opened of one of the world's tallest lift test towers. The new 36-floor tower is centrally located at the KONE Park manufacturing site, engineering facility and research and development (R&D) center in the Kunshan New and Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone in Eastern China.

Reaching a height of 235.6 meters, the tower contains 12 shafts that can be reconfigured for testing new high-rise solutions and components. Permanent features include a high-speed lift that carries visitors to a sky lobby and showroom at speed of up to 10m/s. This is the world's first double-decker lift to feature KONE UltraRope(TM) super-light rope technology.

The Kunshan test tower is the tallest among KONE's eight global testing facilities. KONE's underground testing facility in Tytyri, Finland, is 305 meters deep, allowing the company to test lift at speeds up to 17 m/s - the only testing facility in the world where such speeds can be reached. In the new Kunshan test tower, the maximum speed is 15 m/s.