New State of Illinois Elevator Code adopted A17.1 2013

The State of Illinois has a new elevator code A17.1 2013 which was adopted on 2/19/15, information sent out on 4/13/15.  

There are a few changed to the code some of the high lights that effect building owners and elevator contractors are what is expected to be in the elevator room.  Many contractors have chosen to put stickers indicating where to find the Maintenance control plan or maintenance records, some companies have CD’s, some companies have books that cover traction elevators, hydraulic elevators and escalators.  The code is more explicit in expectations of both maintenance records and the maintenance control plan in the new code.  If an elevator inspector does not have a computer with him to view a CD or log into a web site for information or receive an email with the maintenance records or MCP it will make things interesting on how we inspect the new code.  During an inspection in an open territory I have called 1-800 Elevator Company to see if I can get them to send the building owner the MCP or maintenance records and 1-800 Elevator Company said they could not send anything and indicated the sales person would call me the following day.   The sales person called the next day but never got the building owner the information.  As we are a competitor as well as can perform inspections, I did not expect the company to send me the information but I wanted confirmation the building owner had access to it.  When 1 800 Elevator Company’s contract is not renewed and Roadrunner Elevator Company is hired, Roadrunner will not have access to previous repairs or maintenance information.  This, in my opinion, is a problem.

Maintenance control plan[in previous posts we have gone over what is to be in an MCP]

           

            Onsite available to all elevator personnel

            Provided by elevator maintenance contractor

            Describes maintenance tasks & procedures

            Updated as required

 Permits remote(centralized) maintenance of MCP provided there is onsite viewing. 

Note to inspectors – The inspector’s job is not to indicated if the MCP, in his or her opinion, is good or bad, but consistent with the equipment being inspected.  If there is a book with escalator maintenance in it for a traction elevator this would not be acceptable, in my opinion.

Maintenance records - Elevator code

            Maintenance records shall be retained on-site for not less than 5 years.  The date           shall start on the date A17.3 adoption [2/19/15] 

Maintenance records - State of Illinois JCAR[Joint committee on Administrative rules]

Section 1000.190  Conveyance Maintenance, Repair, and Upgrade History

All licensed conveyance contractors shall maintain records on all work conducted for a period of at least 10 years.  Records shall be organized by location and conveyance registration number for ease of review.

Total building evacuation – This is a feature that is in the building fire command center that shall signal the elevator system all floors are to be evacuated.  There is a lot more to this portion of the code which I haven’t had a chance to look into fully.

These are the three items I picked out of the new code that where significant to us, there are other items as well that have been changed from the 2010 to 2013 code.

If you have an questions or would like information from Colley Elevator you can go to www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.