State of Illinois Fire Marshal Elevator Division 8/13/24 meeting

We had our State of Illinois Fire Marshall Elevator Division meeting this last week and it was a big meeting for a few reasons.

 

 

1. State of Illinois voted on moving forward with the A17.1 2022 elevator code. This code could be adopted in 6-12 months by the state. Nothing is certain with the process in Springfield but that is the guess by the Board. When it does pass, there will be further safety requirements, for example pressure sensitive pit ladders and a breaker box in the machine room. Stay tuned - we'll include more information in a future blog.

2. A proposal to address our temporary acceptance challenge was suggested for denial by the Board. This mainly affects elevators being placed in service after an installation or modernization. Since temporary acceptance is not permitted, even minor violations (those that do not affect the safety of the riding public), will prevent the elevator's usage. See the above pdf for proposed language that was discussed.

3. Use of a secondary stopping mechanism, the Hydra Safe Brake, was approved pending certification by CSA (Canadian Standards Association).

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

 
Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.

Vote Colley Elevator for Elevator Worlds 2024 Best Contractor – North

 

Colley Elevator is excited to announce we have been nominated for Elevator Worlds 2024 Best Contractor – North award once again.  We brought the Ellie home in 2019. 2020 and 2022.   We would like to bring the Ellie back to the Chicagoland area so please place your vote for Colley Elevator.  You can vote once a day from each device you have. 

Voting takes place 8/1/24 to 8/14/24

https://elevatorworld.com/contests/the-ellies/the-ellies-2024-voting/

For those at Colley Elevator who work tirelessly to be a different elevator company and do great things for our customers, let us know you support us fighting the good fight!

Thank you Elevator World for having this contest and letting us give it a go for the 2024 year.  It is a lot of fun to participate! 

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me

at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.

Elevator Picture Hall of Fame 2024 – Volume 2

 

The Hall of Fame posts are typically some of the more popular blogs in the Colley blog history. We get to see a lot of elevators during the year during our initial visit for pricing or during engineering for projects.  Of the hundreds of elevators, and thousands of pictures, these are some of the gems I've seen from this past year.

 

Lucky Dime – When I was younger, there was a cartoon on called Duck Tales which was about Scrooge Mc Duck and his nephew's adventures.  Uncle Scrooge had his lucky dime; this interlock had its lucky penny.

 

Old Balls – I have a friend in the elevator business who I call Old Balls. He is pretty old (20 days older than me) and I'm sure he doesn't like the name.  These pictures remind me of him.  There is a lot going on in here and a pump I may have only seen once before this picture.  I hope to see Old Balls at the upcoming NAEC Convention.  

 

Super Hero Caught – I think the reason we like super heroes is because we all think they're special and have magical powers.  If you're a Marvel, or DC, or whatever else (I don’t acknowledge because I was an early 1990’s comic fan and that other stuff is for the birds), super heroes are an integral part of your life.  We caught this valve with his cape and mask on trying to be something everyone did/does/should do; try and live out your super hero dream.  Can an inspector please write up these buildings?

 

Should Know/Should Learn – Everyone has a "thing", one of my "things" is over-lubricated cables from these lubricating devices.  It drives me bananas when I see grease all over the cables.  If we go to buildings on a regular basis, we should know to take off the lubricator. We should also know how to put them on.  They wick. You don’t bury the felt on the cables.  If you don’t know what wick means, look it up or go to this link.

 https://www.elevatorbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/EW0615.pdf

Side Hustle – Some of us are doing elevators as a job.  Since it is just a job, and not a career or a passion, we have other things in our lives we try to explore.  We stumbled on this resident mechanic's passion when walking into the machine room.  Follow your dreams!!!  But if you are going to follow them, do a great job with the elevator. Otherwise another contractor may walk in on them because the elevator is having issues.

 

Lord Of The Rings – I didn’t catch this at first glance.  Not sure what to think of this one other than maybe the project team didn’t want Schmegal to get his hands on this ring?

 

Periodic Maintenance – I know there are alarms you can put in pits that would prevent this situation.  But…  If we are going to buildings on a regular basis, we would catch these situations quickly.  I would imagine the OEMS will make it a code item to have a water alarm in all elevator pits so they don’t need to visit buildings. That way Oscar, or Revit, or whatever the name of their predictive modeling system is that counts irregularities in noises or voltages can write the maintenance ticket [these predictive modeling devices are taking your labor hours away].  So far there is no code for water sensors in pits so you should still make your elevator contractor come to the building and actually look at your elevator. You may find someone that is important.  Watson, eat my shorts!  Building owners - pay for and demand someone actually coming to your building. 

 

Hanging with Mr. Cooper – I think this show was on after a show I actually watched on Friday night TV in the early 90s late 80s.  Come on man!  Just 'cause someone else did it, doesn’t mean you have to leave it.  This elevator had “maintenance” on the elevator on a regular basis.

Cleaning Up – Whenever we have people over we [when I say we, I mean my wife] "clean up". This means we take all of our mess and throw it in a different room.  It could be bills we have to pay, important documents, whatever, if it is on the counter, it is going in the room that is a mess.  One day I will clean up that room.

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.

Traction Elevator Modernization – Indian Head Park, IL

 

In the late 1970s/early 1980s US Elevator installed a good amount of elevators in a complex in Indian Head Park, IL.  We have had the opportunity to modernize 4 so far in the complex and these last two were numbers 5 & 6.  This was a cool project because we not only replaced the elevator controllers, we also replaced the machines as they where worn to a point that refurbishment would not suffice.  

Existing elevator & project scope – We replaced the elevator controller, machines, fixtures and door operator. 

New equipment providers

Controllers – Motion Control Engineering

Door operators – GAL

Fixtures – Innovation Industries

Roller guides - SEES

Visual communication - Rath w/Kings 3 cellular & answering service

Elevator controller – The existing controller was a US Elevator controller with motor generators.  We installed Motion Control Engineering's elevator controls with a KEB F5 motor drive.

[Old US Elevator Traction Controller]

[New Motion Control Engineering Traction Controller]

Elevator fixtures – The US Elevator fixtures had been replaced with Innovation Industries fixtures. However when they were initially replaced, they did not account for the upcoming code changes[visual text & FEO]. That required us to install new fixtures during this most recent modernization which included a Rath phone, visual hardware and Kings III cellular & answering service. 

 

[New Innovation Industries car station with visual text capabilities]

Elevator traction machine – We removed the existing US Elevator machines and installed new Hollister Whitney traction elevator machines and Rope Grippers.

 

[Old US Elevator traction machines]

[New Hollister Whitney traction machines]

Machine room[see above] – Before the elevator modernization, we had the elevator controllers in the middle of the room which cramped mobility.  We installed the new controllers on the front walls of the machine room, which opened it up considerably.  

Roller guides – We replaced the existing US Elevator roller guides, which have welded rollers, with new SEES assemblies with replaceable rollers.

[Old US Elevator roller guides]

[New SEES roller guide assemblies]

Car ID tags – This is a very small piece of the modernization, but we now have to label each elevator with a 2” or larger car ID tag at the main fire floor and alternate landing.  The tags need to be on both sides of the door frame. 

Take away – The reality is that the older elevator equipment in this building was harder and harder to maintain, while the people who understand it at a high level are retiring.  If a building can get ahead of these challenges and plan to replace the equipment before it cannot be repaired, or before they have to call 3 or 4 companies to find someone who still can resolve controller issues quickly, is a great thing.  The building did wait a few years too long to get rid of the US Elevator equipment, but we are happy they did.

Team work– The sales person and the project team who finishes typically get the glory on a project.  In between the initial contract sale and the final acceptance are many other people who work on the project to make it successful.  From the truck driver to the engineer to the billing department to the assist when needed 14 Colley Elevator employees where involved in the project and we had tremendous team work on it.  Thank you everyone without you we would not have had such a successful delivery!  Let’s not forget our great material supplier participation!

Finishing touches – The project team did a great job on the finishing touches to this project.  Machine room painted, car tops cleaned and elevator pits painted.  Love seeing this!

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.

Oak Park, IL New Elevator Certification Process

We started getting calls and emails from our Oak Park, IL customers asking questions about their elevator's annual inspection.  The customers stated that Oak Park is requiring them to get this information.  After the 4^th request for information, thinking this was unusual, I talked to the Oak Park elevator inspector, Thompson Elevator Inspection, and they said that Oak Park, IL was moving towards a system where the building owner would have to upload their inspections.   We bumped into our first instance where we needed to help our customer last week. Oak Park’s Permits & Development Department was nice enough to give us some information to share.

From Oak Park’s Permits and Development Department:

You will need to register each elevator and pay the inspection and upload the passing inspection. Every elevator will have a separate registration. Once completed and the inspection reports are reviewed, a certificate will be generated and emailed to you. It will remain available on the portal also. Please see steps below for the process:

The Village has implemented a new elevator licensing system.  All Oak Park properties with an elevator are being required to register each elevator for this first year of implementation by April 30, 2024. To facilitate a smooth renewal process, please review the following steps:
 
1.    Go to the Village's web portal at www.oak-park.us/villageview.
2.    If you have an existing registered email account, click ‘Sign In’ and go to step 6 below.
3.    To register a new account, click ‘Register’ and follow the prompts.
4.    Once you have finished entering registration information – STOP.
5.    Go to your email and use the link to validate your registration.
6.    Under ‘Licensing,’ click ‘Elevator Certificate’ and complete the registration and payment process.
7.    Repeat step 6 for each additional elevator.

Thank you for your cooperation. For more information, please contact the Permits & Development Division at 708 358 5430 or permits@oak-park.us or visit https://www.oak-park.us/village-services/permits-processing-division

 This is the document the Village is looking for - "Left in Machine Room"

This is a very new process for us as elevator contractors because we will be leaned on to help out the buildings we maintain.  Previously the Village and Elevator Inspector handled most of the certification process.

Challenges – It will be up to the building to know when the elevator inspector is at the building.  The elevator inspector does not let the building know when they are at a building, they rely on the elevator company to let the building know.  The building will have to get the elevator inspection form from the machine room or have the elevator company send them picture, the elevator inspector does not give the elevator contractor a copy of the annual inspection, it is to remain in the elevator machine room.  When the building has a passing inspection, they will need to upload it into the portal. 

What happens if we do not submit our inspections? – We had a building pass their inspections and testing in March and they got a sticker put in their building.  We, the elevator company, got word very quickly about this and sorted it out with the Village of Oak Park and they got their certificate.  Oak Park was great about responding and assisting the building to complete their process to get their permit. 

We all have a lot to learn about the process and the elevator contractor is going to be the conduit for the information to the building owner.  The building owner will most likely need a lot of assistance at first to complete their tasks required to get a certificate.

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.

Hot Weather & Elevator Machine Rooms Will Affect Your Elevator's Ability to Service the Building - Summertime! HOT! TOO HOT!

 

We have had some blistering hot and humid days, that hit all of a sudden, and have gotten a lot of calls from equipment failure due to hot weather, no ventilation, controller failure, relay failure, door operator failure, motor failure, etc. Our elevator mechanics have been chasing calls since the heatwave began.  The original post was from 2017, reposted in 2018, 2021, 2022 and now as we approach 100 degrees in 2024.

This summer we have seen more frequent failure of solid state boards and equipment that has been exposed to extreme heat and cold.  Building owners frequently ask “why is this occurring”.   I always like to give some research and background when explaining to building owners, so they can be better educated, and came across a great article from which I have taken some of the high points.  When reading this, be aware that most issues with machine room environments will result in a shut down or needing a replacement board. However incorrect machine temperatures can also cause malfunctions which could result in an elevator operating in an unsafe condition.

The subject of the operation of an elevator in an elevated high ambient machine room temperature is one of concern for elevator manufacturers, code writes, enforcing authorities, building owners and operators, elevator consultants and fire safety personnel.  Today’s solid-state design elevator control systems are able to maintain rated performance over a wide range of normal design operating temperatures but are vulnerable to elevated temperature conditions.

NEII Vertical Transportation Standard calls for machine room/or machinery spaced temperature to be between 55 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

NEMA has established a maximum temperature limit of 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

National Electrical Code[NEC] has published 86 degrees Fahrenheit as the standard ambient for conductor ampacity ratings.

Computer manufacturers recommend an ambient temperature of 60 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  Your elevator's microprocessor controller is a computer.

The effects on solid state components due to temperature may be classified in two areas; operating[reliability] and failure[life].  The manufacturer's recommendation for ambient temperature will allow the devices to operate in a repeatable and predictable fashion.  Temperatures above or below the recommended temperature will decrease the life of the solid-state system.

Hydraulic fluid - Heat will affect your hydraulic fluid as well as your electronic components.  Hotter oil means thinner oil, means different leveling, means potential for unlevel conditions and trip and falls.

Please note - Elevator controller temperatures are 10 to 15 degrees warmer inside the controller with the cover on. If an elevator machine room is 105 degrees, the temperature when you open the door to the controller could be over 120 degrees.

 

Causes of machine room over temperature

 

1.   Failure of machine room ventilation or no ventilation

2.   Failure of cabinet ventilation system – air condition or fan

3.   Increase in the elevator duty cycle beyond design criteria

4.   Sustained operation at low AC input levels

The recommendation of machine room temperature control comes from a few different areas

1.   Normal temperature in room – in Chicago we have hot summers and cold winters

2.   Amount of heat released from the elevator equipment in the machine room – depends on the equipment you have and amount of traffic in the building

3.   Amount of ventilation and/or air conditioning/heating provided in machine room.

Take away – Be aware of the machine room environment and make preparations i.e. air conditioning[best case] or ventilation in summer and heating in the winter.

Reference – “High temperature operation of elevators” by Nick Marchitto

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

 

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.

Identification of Elevator Equipment – Labeling Elevator Hoistway Door Frames - A17.1 2019

 

In our area we have had more attention paid to labelling our elevators on hoistway door frames.  In the past we had labeled our elevators with what we thought where good ID tags, but they didn’t meet the letter of the code.  We have changed to a new label and put them directly below the Braille tags.

The code states:

2.29.1.2 – The identification assigned in 2.29.1.1 shall be a minimum of 50mm(2 inches) in height unless otherwise specified, and a contrasting color to its background.  The identification shall be painted on, engraved on, securely attached to, or adjacent to the following equipment associated with each elevator or the enclosure housing the following equipment associated with each elevator;

(i)             On both door jambs of every elevator entrance at the designated level, the alternate level, the level where means necessary for tests are provided(see 2.7.6.4) and the level where an inspection and test panel is provided (see 2.7.6.5); this identification shall be a minimum 50mm(2 inches) in height and shall be located immediately below the floor designation, where provided(see Nonmandatory Appendix E, Clause E-17)

 

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.