Elevator Modernization – Village of Carpentersville

We recently had the opportunity to partner with the Village of Carpentersville and Morgan Harbor Construction to work on the Village Hall elevator modernization.  The existing elevator was a 1970’s vintage Dover elevator that was constantly having issues with reliability.  The project was bid as a turn key so Colley was the general contractor on the project which also put us in charge of the fire alarm and electrical work.  This was a great team effort, thank you to everyone involved!

Existing equipment

Elevator Controller – Dover w/Cards

Elevator Door operator – Dover

Elevator Power unit – Dover w/Dover I-2 valve

Elevator Fixtures – Dover

New equipment

Elevator Controller – Smartrise

Elevator Door operator – GAL MOVFR w/Dover car and hatch equipment

Elevator Power unit – MEI w/Maxton UC4 valve

Elevator Fixtures – Innovation 

Elevator Car and hatch doors – H & B Elevator

Machine room layout 

[Old Machine room layout]

[New Machine room layout]

[New Smartrise Controller]

Power unit

[Old Dover dry Power Unit with I-2 Valve]

[New MEI submersible Power unit with Maxton UC4 valve]

Door operator & rail guides

 [Old Dover door operator & slide guides]

 [Old Dover door operator & roller guides]

Car, hall fixtures & doors

  [Old Dover car station]

 [New Innovation car station]

 [Old Dover hall station] 

 [New Innovation hall station with digital P/I at each floor - New hatch doors by H & B]

 [Old door with formica & binders]

 [New Stainless steel #4 doors by H & B - gives the car a updated look]

The project was a public bid and the Village saved a considerable amount of money from the other two bidders bids.

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

NAEC Board of Directors 2018 Mid Year meeting

Once a year the Board of Directors gets together for a mid-year meeting to go over NAEC association business and provide direction until our next meeting at the NAEC Spring Conference.  I write this because I get asked lots of questions from my coworkers and NAEC members.  What did you do when you were out there?  What do you get out of it?

NAEC - Board of Directors

Craig Zomchek - Colley Elevator - President

Gary Schuette - Midwest Elevator - Vice President

John Dodds - Kencor Inc - Secretary

LJ Blaiotta - Columbia Elevator Products - Treasurer

Robert Barber - Premier Elevator 

Tim Conkling - Capital Elevator

Rick Gable - Gable Elevator 

Don Gelestino - Champion Elevator

Henry Handel - Handel & Son 

Joseph McNally - McNally Elevator

Tom Thompson - Innovation Ind

Gina Valdez - Texacone

Cornelius Walls - Formula Systems

What did we do down there?

The location was at Sunny Isles, Florida about 30 minutes north of Miami.  This was a self-funded trip where the BOD paid their way to the meeting to volunteer their time.

[Welcome to Florida!]

We got to Florida on Saturday with the help of all four grandparents of the first daughter of the NAEC.  I am currently the president of the NAEC and am grateful for my wife, parents and In-laws for coming along to give us a hand.  The BOD got together and had a welcome dinner at the hotel restaurant which was sponsored by the current president of the NAEC.

[This is what our meeting looks like]

Sunday morning came and we began our meeting where we discussed some of our opportunities and challenges coming up for the NAEC.  Due to the Hurricane that disrupted the convention that was supposed to be in Orlando and the quick switch to Atlantic City we have some financial challenges from loss of revenue.  Fortunately, we have some great opportunities to drive revenue as well.  One which I will link is NAEC’s VTMP[Vertical Transportation Management Program].  This is a great program for new entrants into the business or for field personnel transitioning to the office environment.  The program is $1,600.00 for both sections[technical and business] or can be split up with a reduction in price.  I spent about 7 years learning the information that is available in this program so I encourage you to look into this to shorten the learning curve of having someone be a productive member of your team. Colley has already enrolled 6 people in this program.  Our meeting went about 7.5 hours, we adjourned to spend the next 6+ hours together for dinner and watching the NFL playoff games.  Bar was picked up by one of our BOD members.

More information on VTMP - https://www.naec.org/education/vtmp.html

Monday we had a breakfast and took a trip to Miami where we spent the later part of the day in South Beach.  This is a time for everyone to get to know each other and talk shop.  BOD members picked up bar and food tabs during this trip.

[One of our stops on South Beach at The Clevelander]

[This was a pretty cool hotel/hostel we stopped at]

 [Finally dinner at Gloria Estefans Larios on the Beach]

What do I get out of being involved in the NAEC BOD?

I get asked this question a lot.  I get to spend time with people I look up to and peers in the elevator industry.  We share stories of where we came from and where we are going.   I get a chance to spend many hours with other contractors from all around the country who may do something different then we do or I can bounce ideas off of.  I have developed relationships with many great people who I can work with in the future if I need help and vice versa.  On the supplier side I get to spend time with the owners/key people from their respective companies.  If there are questions or issues I know where to go for the answers.  I heard some incredible stories of how companies started, how their companies grew and challenges their companies go through.  There are some big take aways from our off-script conversations that help me in our business.

What is next?

Spring conference is scheduled to be in Carlsbad California April 15-18. I have linked the agenda below.  Topics include OSHA silica safety training, carbon brush maintenance, freight elevator applications, 7 mistakes managers make, platform lifts, elevators in natural disasters, ERP’s for elevator contractors, harassment claims, safety roundtable, zero clearance entrances, residential elevator hoistway safety, control valves and more.  There is a supplier and contractor member session, open mic, golf, receptions, etc as well.

Take a look - http://www.naec.org/conference/

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

Hydraulic Freight Elevator Modernization

Over the last 3 years we have been fortunate enough to have been working with the USPS on freight elevator modernization.  This project was chopped up into 3 phases.  The first phase was awarded to a different company but Colley completed phase II & III.  Here are some pictures of elevator #2 after all three phases have been completed.

  [Controller set up after phase II, before phase III - Phase II included door modernization]

  [New MCE control system]

  [New Courion control system]

The elevator control systems where installed by Automatic Elevator using Maida elevator controllers and Harris Prebble automatic freight doors.  We replaced the system with a Motion Control Engineering elevator controller and Courion automatic freight doors.

   [Old Quality Elevator power unit]

  [New Delaware Elevator power unit]

The elevator’s hydraulic power unit was initial fabricated by Quality Elevator, Niles, IL and replaced with a Delaware Elevator unit.  A Maxton valve was utilized. 

   [Old Adams Elevator car station]

   [Old Adams car station]

  [New Innovation car station]

The elevator fixtures where originally from Adam’s Elevator and replaced with Innovation Industries.  Each land has position indicators & security fobs.

  [New Courion hatch door and Innovation Hall stations]

All of automatic hatch doors and car gates had been replaced with Courion.

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

Colley Elevator’s end of year get together

We have out annual end of year get together last night and it was great.  We had over 50 people turn out to Pin Stripes – Oak Brook, IL for dinner and bowling.  It is always nice to catch up with everyone outside of work and with their significant others.

The Friday before I stopped at one of our job sites where we are replacing freight doors in an explosion proof environment.  It is always amazing to see the hard work and amazing feats that elevator people do every day.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, from the person who answers the phone to the person who completes the field task, it takes a team to make things run well.  A thank you to everyone who is involved!

I got to thinking about how much knowledge and experience we had in the room and am always wowed reflecting on it.

We had 5 of our retirees that had a total of 126 years of service call Colley if you add it all up.  Without their hard work we would not be here!  They laid the groundwork for what we are doing today.

Colley's current employees have 266 years of collective experience working at Colley which is an average of 9.5 years[at Colley Elevator]. 

We have a legend who has worked at Colley for over 54 years!

Outside of our lives at Colley we have some great stories that include being

            Mothers

            Fathers

            Grandparents

            World travelers

            Singers

 Thespians

            Marines

            Rock star(s)

            Bostonian hockey pro

            Professional football player - On Thanksgiving

            Real Estate mogul

            Sportsmen

            Motor cycle customizer

            1st generation immigrant

            Army veteran

            Record producer who turned down Fall Out Boys first record[they have only gone                  on to sell 7.5 million records]

            Air Force veteran

            Garbage compactor repairman

            Car/truck enthusiasts

            Hot rod racer

            Marathon runner

            Electronic wizard

            Born in a log cabin

            TV producer

            Pro bowler

            Teachers

            Hockey Player

            Artists

            The list could go on

*I may be exaggerating on some of these

It is the eclectic group of people with the eclectic experiences that makes our company great!  I love learning all these unique things about the people we work with and their significant others, it makes us who we are.  It makes us a great team!

           

I had a great time and here is to a great start to 2018!

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

Year in review Colley Elevator Blog - 2018 Elevator Blog

I reflected at our first post, it was on February 20^th, 2014 and was about water melting all the snow on the ground flooding buildings.  We had 900 elevators in our portfolio at that time which was a lot for our company historically.  Almost 4 years later we have over 1300 elevators in our portfolio, added 4 routes, doing higher rise modernization projects and we continue to grow.  All of this would not be possible with out the help of all the great people who work at Colley and worked at Colley over the 109 years of our history.

Over the last 4 years there have been 187 blog posts.  This is a small feat compared to Tom Sybert’s elevator radio show[www.elevatorradioshow.com] being around for 12 years.  But we will keep working at it!

 [This is the guy writing the blog]

This is a post reflecting on the last year of blogging, it also can be used as a reference to find topics you may want to know more about.  If you ever want to know about something let me know and I can write about it.  Many of the topics I write about I learn about as I am writing the blog.

Importance of elevator data tags – 1/2/17

Elevator Fireman’s service phase I & II – 1/9/17

Poor elevator portfolio maintenance – 1/15/17

Elevator hoistway & pit access – 1/29/17

Private residence lift accidents – 2/11/17

Chicago elevator maintenance & FEO – 2/19/17

Elevator U – 2/26/17

Chicago Fireman’s Service [FEO] – 3/5/17

Chicago Elevator Modernization – 3/12/17

Elevator Fireman’s automatic recall – 3/19/17

National Association of Elevator Contractors – 3/29/17

Hydraulic elevator modernization – 4/2/17

Traction elevator modernization – 4/8/17

Elevator maintenance records – 4/16/17

Hydraulic elevator overdue for modernization – 4/23/17

Hydraulic elevator noise – 4/30/17

Accidents in elevator hoistway – non elevator trades – 5/7/17

Elevator door restrictor – Adams hatch latch – 5/14/17

Elevator door restrictor – GAL mechanical – 5/21/17

Elevator door restrictor – SEES – 5/29/17

Elevator door restrictor – ECI/GAL Canada – 6/4/17

Elevator door restrictor – Electrodyne – 6/11/17

Door restrictor wrap up – 6/18/17

Obsolete elevator equipment – 6/25/17

Elevator ladder safety – 7/4/17

Modernization of an elevator traction machine – 7/11/17

When is it time to modernize? – 7/16/17

Buildings flood and elevator damage – 7/23/17

NAEC strategic planning session – 7/30/17

Colley Elevator summer get together – 8/6/17

Elevator machine room temperatures – 8/21/17

Elevator pit hazards & safe access – 9/5/17

Staying sharp – continuing education – 9/10/17

Staying safe – Elevator worker safety – 9/17/1

Readable Fireman’s phase I & II instructions – 9/24/17

NAEC – 2017 elevator convention – 10/1/17

Traction elevator modernization – 10/8/17

Elevator cylinder removal – 10/15/17

The “green” elevator installation – 10/22/17

Elevator modernization – High Voltage – 10/29/17

Elevator pit hall of fame – Volume #1 – 11/5/17

Elevator pit hall of fame – Volume #2 – 11/12/17

Chicago elevator maintenance traction – 11/19/17

When is it time to plan a elevator modernization – 11/26/17

Hydraulic elevator modernization – 12/2/17

Elevator controller hall of fame – 12/10/17

Elevator motor control – 12/17/17

I would like to thank everyone that has taken the time to read the blog.  I would like to thank all of my coworkers, inspectors, consultants, suppliers, friendly local competitors, friends I’ve met being on the board of directors for the NAEC for making 2017 a great year!  My 2017/2018 advice - Get involved, learn, find your passion and when you look back on the year you will see how much you have grown professionally, personally and socially.  If you didn’t do it this year, 2018 is right around the corner, make a difference in your life and someone else’s life.  We are only here for a short time leave your mark.  I wish everyone a safe and happy New Year!

 [Make it a great year from my home to yours!]

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