SEES mechanical elevator door restrictor

This will be the 3rd of a few posts on elevator door restrictors.  We get a lot of questions in our area about door restrictors when some of the restrictors begin failing.  Many in our area haven’t worked for years due to entrapments. We get asked; Why did it fail? What is the next step?  We say “replace it with XY or Z”.  But many building owners have no idea what a door restrictor is or the differences between the different types.

What is a door restrictor? – A door restrictor is a device that restricts the elevator car door from opening more than 4” when it is outside the landing zone.  The landing zone is typically 18” above or below the floor.   Essentially this device traps someone in the car so they cannot get out of the car and fall below the car down the hoistway.  An elevator person or emergency services should be called to get a person out safely.

Why did the door restrictor come about? – I know there are people out there that can explain or tell this more accurately than myself, but, from what I know there was a series of accidents within a short period of time with people getting out of an elevator that was out of the landing zone and they fell down the hoistway and got seriously injured or died.  I believe a few of these accidents occurred in Chicago in the 1990’s.

The SEES door restrictor is newer to our Chicago market.  Dover/Otis had been using a similar restrictor for years, I’m not sure why it took a while for it to hit the open market.  This restrictor if it can be installed is great, all mechanical, no failure points.

There will be 3 restrictors we discuss pros and cons for, the SEES mechanical door restrictor is a great restrictor our preferred for most of our projects.

[Car door restrictor vane - notice it is retractable]

[Flags placed on the hatch door to "restrict" the car door]

Pros

1.    Easy to install 

2.    Reliable

3.    No electronic parts

Cons

1.    Cannot be installed on all elevators

Purpose of this information - We frequently see on elevator violations “Repair door restrictor” or we see entrapments due to malfunctioning door restrictors.   If a building has a door restrictor from the 1990’s, 2000’s there may be a better replacement such as a door clutch mechanical restrictor or a SEES style door restrictor or replace with a newer version of the Adam’s Hatch Latch.

As always feel free to contact us at www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.

Elevator door restrictor - GAL mechanical

This will be the 2nd of a few posts on elevator door restrictors.  We get a lot of questions in our area about door restrictors when some of the restrictors begin failing.  Many in our area haven’t worked for years due to entrapments. We get asked; Why did it fail? What is the next step?  We say “replace it with XY or Z”.  But many building owners have no idea what a door restrictor is or the differences between the different types.

What is a door restrictor? – A door restrictor is a device that restricts the elevator car door from opening more than 4” when it is outside the landing zone.  The landing zone is typically 18” above or below the floor.   Essentially this device traps someone in the car so they cannot get out of the car and fall below the car down the hoistway.  An elevator person or emergency services should be called to get a person out safely.

Why did the door restrictor come about? – I know there are people out there that can explain or tell this more accurately than myself, but, from what I know there was a series of accidents within a short period of time with people getting out of an elevator that was out of the landing zone and they fell down the hoistway and got seriously injured or died.  I believe a few of these accidents occurred in Chicago in the 1990’s.

In the United States the GAL door operator is the most popular supplier of door equipment.  We as an independent contractor have been using GAL since the mid 1960’s.  When we install new GAL equipment or replace old GAL equipment with new we get a new clutch with a mechanical restrictor on it. 

This is the 2nd of  3 restrictors we discuss pros and cons for 

 [This particular elevator used a new clutch and changed the clutch release rollers on each floor to comply with the State of Illinois mandate requiring all passenger elevators to have door restrictors]

 [Older GAL door restrictor]

Pros

1.    Easy to install 

2.    Reliable

3.    No electronic parts

Cons

1.    Can be installed wrong and cause entrapments

2.    Wear points

3.    Cannot be installed on all elevators

Purpose of this information - We frequently see on elevator violations “Repair door restrictor” or we see entrapments due to malfunctioning door restrictors.   If a building has a door restrictor from the 1990’s, 2000’s there may be a better replacement such as a door clutch mechanical restrictor or a SEES style door restrictor or replace with a newer version of the Adam’s Hatch Latch.

As always feel free to contact us at www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.

Elevator door restrictor – Adams hatch latch

This will be the 1^st of a few posts on elevator door restrictors.  We get a lot of questions in our area about door restrictors when the restrictors begin failing.  Many in our area haven’t worked for years due to entrapments and have never been repaired. We get asked; Why did it fail? What is the next step?  We say “replace it with X,Y or Z”.  But many building owners have no idea what a door restrictor is or the differences between the different types.

What is a door restrictor? – A door restrictor is a device that restricts the elevator car door from opening more than 4” when it is outside the landing zone.  The landing zone is typically 18” above or below the floor.   Essentially this device traps someone in the car so they cannot get out of the car and fall below the car down the hoistway.  An elevator person or emergency services should be called to get a person out safely.

Why did the door restrictor come about? – I know there are people out there that can explain or tell this more accurately than myself, but, from what I know there was a series of accidents within a short period of time with people getting out of an elevator that was out of the landing zone and they fell down the hoistway and got seriously injured or died.  I believe a few of these accidents occurred in Chicago in the 1990’s.

In the mid 1990’s the City of Chicago mandated this device to be installed on all elevators and other AHJ's followed in later years.  

There will be 3 restrictors we discuss pros and cons for, the Adams hatch latch will be the first. Many elevators in the Chicago have Adam’s Hatch Latch door restrictors.  There are a few other companies who produce a similar door restrictor but in our area they are not as popular. 

The Adam's Hatch Latch is an electrical mechanical device that incorporates 2 sensors one for position of the elevator and one for the position on the door, a solenoid that picks and drops to allow the car door to open and close and a microprocessor board that operates the system.  There is a new version that operates a bit different with the 2nd sensor eliminated and replaced with a magnet.

[This particular door restrictor doesn't appear to capture the door position with the 2nd sensor]

Pros

1.    Easy to install 

2.    Will work with most elevator door systems – very flexible

Cons

1.    Many failure points – If any of these items fail it may cause an entrapment

a.    Battery failure - may not cause entrapment

b.    Board failure

c.    Solenoid failure

d.    Sensor failure

2.    Some versions are obsolete

3.    Requires on going maintenance

Purpose of this information - We frequently see on elevator violations “Repair door restrictor” or we see entrapments due to malfunctioning door restrictors.   If a building has a door restrictor from the 1990’s, 2000’s there may be a better replacement such as a door clutch mechanical restrictor or a SEES style door restrictor or replace with a newer version of the Adam’s Hatch Latch.

As always feel free to contact us at www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.

Accidents in elevator hoist way – non elevator trades

This last week I learned about 2 newer accidents in the elevator world.  

1 x Miami, FL – A man working at MET Miami Project fell 4 stories down an elevator shaft.  He was a construction worker.  The person was taken to the hospital.

1 x Simi Valley, CA – Construction worker fell down a 4 story building’s elevator hoist way.  The person was taken to the hospital.

In the State of Illinois there is a notice put out by the State Fire Marshall about people entering hoist ways, it needs to be under the supervision of a licensed elevator contractor.  In our state we had a series of accidents from smoke detector companies accessing the elevator hoist way unattended.   The cost for a trained person to be onsite during hoist way work is much less expensive then an accident occurring at your building. 

The Miami and Simi Valley accidents may be from not protecting the elevator shaft.  Impossible to say without seeing the site.  But one thing we can say is maybe there could have been more we could have done to prevent the accidents.

We had a post about demo companies and open hoist ways back in 2015 which is worth a read.

http://colleyelevator.blogspot.com/2015/08/what-happens-when-demo-contractors-try.html

Let’s be safe, lets identify unsafe conditions and bring it to the attention of the building owner or general contractor.  Someone’s complacency could be another person’s life ending.  Saying something could save someone’s life.  Lets go to work and come home safe.

There is an event coming up put on by NAESAI about elevator constructor’s safety and the protection of elevator people.  If you have time to go, it will be worth it.

https://www.naesai.org/sessions/739

Thank you to Tom Sybert for his elevator radio show which alerts us to these events so we can learn from them.  

www.elevatorradioshow.com

As always feel free to contact us at www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.