Looking at potential elevator designs. Is there any way that having a fixed loop of chain wouldn’t work for raising and lowering a 254-style continuous elevator? It would seem that the length of the chain would be static and wouldn’t need to dynamically shorten or lengthen.
I don’t see why it wouldn’t work as long as you are able to keep tension on the chain and set max and min points so you don’t break something, but that is the case with any system.
Assuming we can tension it initially and the chain runs are parallel (to each other and the sliders), would some sort of tensioner/ slack be necessary?
If you’re looking for a good way to tension an elevator chain run (that doesn’t need to go all the way around), I’ve heard good things about the WCP Spartan Chain Tensioners (here).
Disclaimer: I’ve never used them myself so take this recommendation with a grain of salt