Traction freight elevator modernization

This traction freight elevator modernization project took an entire team to complete; from the  building owner design team, general contractor, electrician, fire recall company, security company, sales people, engineering, 4 different major equipment suppliers, field support, IUEC elevator constructors.  2 years in the making the project is finally completed.   Many thanks to everyone involved especially the installers!

The background on this elevator is that it was a Montgomery Elevator installed in 1940’s sometime and it had manual door operation with bi parting freight doors on the front and swing doors on the dock.  The specification called for making it an automatic freight car with new everything except the rails.

Controller – MCE

Machine, sling, safeties, HW equipment – Hollister Whitney

Cab & doors – EMS

Fixtures – Innovation

Machine – Holliser Whitney – A geared application was specified on this project, it was identified that not only would it be a tight fit to get this machine in, it also needed additional structural supports as the small foot print of the Montgomery machine had different reaction points and requirements.  Adding the weight of the new sling, platform and automatic gates required more steel to be installed in the elevator room.

[Old small foot print Montgomery machine]

[Old small foot print Montgomery machine]

[New gearless HWEC machine]

Controller – MCE was chosen to do this project because they used one less electrical device/box for incoming power.  The machine room is very small so space was at a premium.  Some of the other manufacturers qualified for this specification had and additional device/box.

[New MCE & EMS controllers]

Hoistway doors – EMS – We had some significant challenges on this project as the hoistway was fire block and there wasn’t a lot of material to work with to attach the new doors to.  The team working on the project did a beautiful job working with the existing conditions to make it work.

[Old swing doors on dock side - Interior]

[Old swing doors on dock side - Exterior]

[New dock side bi parting automatic freight doors]

[Typical manual freight doors at each landing]

[New automatic freight doors at each landing]

Cab – EMS – New automatic gates replaced the manual wood gates.

[Old cab with manual wood gates]

[New cab with automatic gates]

Fixtures – Innovation – New fixtures installed.  When pictures where taken we were still doing a final clean down of finger prints.

[Old Montgomery fixtures]

[New Innovation fixtures]

Pit work – Hollister Whitney – The pit was discovered during engineering to need to be re-poured and re-enforced.  The pit was shallow to begin with so every inch counted with the excavation and re-pour.

[Old pit]

[New pit]

Safeties – Hollister Whitney – New safeties installed.

[Old safeties]

[New safeties]

This was a challenging project for everyone involved and it turned out great.  From the initial hiccups of having the need for more design work after the initial specifications could not be met with the existing conditions to the completion there was over 40 people who worked on this project; building owner design team, general contractor, electrician, fire recall company, security company, sales people, engineering, 4 different major equipment suppliers, field support, IUEC elevator constructors. Hats off to our IUEC constructors who made each challenge a reality and Hollister Whitney’s engineering for having patience and knowledge to find structural solutions to make this a reality.  

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