On a chairlift, passengers are transported sitting on a seat suspended from a carrying-hauling rope that operates at a constant speed.
There are two types of chairlifts:
Chairlifts with fixed grips
and chairlifts with detachable grips.
Fixed-grip chairlifts differ from detachable chairlifts in two main respects: speed and seating capacity.
Fixed-grip chairlifts :
The chair of a fixed-grip chairlift is attached to the rope with a grip that is fixed to the rope. As a result, the chair always moves at the same speed as the rope, even when passing through end terminals. Seating capacity can be 2, 3, 4 or even 6.
2004 Fixed-grip chairlifts - base station Colibri | photo STRMTG
Speed is limited by the boarding and disembarking possibilities. Speed cannot exceed:
2.5 metres per second (m/s), or approximately 9 km/h, for 2-seater chairlifts
2.3 m/s for 3 or 4-seaters
and 2.0 m/s for chairs that can seat more than 4 people.
However, this speed can be increased if the lift is equipped with boarding conveyor belts (2.8m/s for 2-seaters, 2.7m/s for 3 and 4-seaters and 2.2m/s for more than 4-seaters).
Almost all new fixed-grip chairlifts are 4-seaters, operating at 2.30 m/s or 2.70 m/s with a loading conveyor belt. They can have over 200 seats, transporting up to 2,400 people an hour.
2022 Fixed-grip chairlifts -Clos des Aurans | photo STRMTG
Detachable chairlifts:
The chairs of detachable chairlifts are attached to the rope with a part (grip) that detaches from the rope when it arrives in the station and re-attaches to the cable when it leaves the terminal. This part is called a detachable chairlift grip.
2015 Detachable chairlifts | photo STRMTG
This feature makes it possible to vary the speed of the chair in the terminal, independently of the speed of the carrying-hauling rope, which remains constant. This facilitates passenger loading and disembarkation, since the chair speed during this phase can be lowered to between 0.8 and 1.2 m/s, which is much more comfortable.
The chairs can therefore seat 3, 6 or even 8 people.
The hauling speed, where passengers are not active, can therefore be faster than with a fixed-grip chairlift, which reduces transport time.
At present, this speed is limited to 6m/s (21.6 km/hr).
Most new detachable chairlifts are 6-seaters operating at 5 m/s.
6-seater detachable chairlifts are much more complex than 4-seater fixed-grip chairlifts, with over 100 chairs to carry up to 3200 people per hour, and costing between €3 and 5 million. An 8-seater detachable chairlift can carry up to 4500 people per hour.