Al Sadoon and Musaad Al Saleh and Sons Company, among Oman's foremost elevator companies which has been representing Schindler in the Sultanate for the last 25 years, recently launched an innovative new elevator, the Schindler Smart MRL, on the Omani market. The firm has already sold around 25 units for residential buildings in the country.

''We have received a good response for the product,'' says general manager Thomas Baby. ''Users benefit from lower construction costs because it does not require a machine room and they report that these lifts have been performing very well.''

Elaborating on the product, he says: ''The Schindler Smart MRL family solves the old problem of eliminating the machine room, by fitting all the necessary equipment into the shaft. The new machine-room-less elevator family is radically innovative both in technology and design. Every single part, from the guides to the drive, the car and the controls, has been redesigned to save space and costs.

''The owner of a building can do away with the machine room and benefit from more rentable space, apart from savings on constructing the room. The architect benefits from additional design freedom as a building will not need special load-bearing shaft walls, since Schindler Smart MRL is fixed only to the floor slabs. And users benefit from the high security of the system as a whole and from the easy-to-use telephone-style car-operating panel.

''The Schindler Smart MRL elevators add value by streamlining site preparation specs; computerised order processing; flexible just-in-time delivery; and shorter on-site installation times. It represents innovative use of fully updated, tried-and-tested technology. A new compact gear is located in the upper shaft. The guide rails are fixed with support brackets only needed at each floor level, with load and noise being absorbed in the floor slabs. It features revolutionary electronics with a serial-linked, decentralised controller network.

''The distributed control system is partly located on top of the car and mainly in the control panel situated in the side wall of the top landing door. This advanced technology also helps to save space and to facilitate maintenance.''

Al Sadoon and Musaad Al Saleh and Sons Company provides a supply, installation and maintenance service for this and other products from the Schindler range. The company, part of the Musaad Al-Saleh and Sons Group of Kuwait, provides electromechanical contracting services as well as supply and installation of all types of lifting equipment.

The company's projects list includes prestigious buildings in both the government and private sectors. It has supplied and installed lifts, escalators, platforms and dumbwaiters at the Sultan Qaboos University, Al Harthy Complex, Haffa House, Hamdan Complex, Sabco Centre, Al Sarooj Commercial Centre, American and French embassies, the OC Centre, the American International School and the Ministry of Commerce. The first lifts supplied by Al Sadoon and Musaad Al Saleh and Sons was for the Barakat Al Lamki Building in 1976 and these are still working without any problems, he says.

Recently, it has supplied the Nizwa hospital with six passenger lifts, four high-capacity bed lifts and three dumbwaiters. It is also supplying passenger and bed lifts to a private hospital in Salalah.

Presently, it is poised to supply four escalators and four lifts for a commercial/residential project for the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, which is under construction in Ruwi.

Commenting about the market, he says: ''The Oman market has been dull over the past few years but is beginning to pick up. Competition is very keen.''

Established in 1874, Schindler with a consolidated turnover of more than SFr6.2 billion ($3.5 billion) last year, has improved its performance by 19.2 per cent over 1998.

''As Europe's largest elevator company and the world's leading supplier of elevators and escalators, Schindler has more than 40,000 employees. Schindler has sold 12,000 Smart MRLs in Europe during the first year of its introduction. Schindler elevators and escalators move more than 550 million people worldwide everyday,'' he adds.