Traction Elevator modernization – Indian Head Park, IL

A number of years ago we got invited to bid the door equipment replacement at a building in Indian Head Park, IL.  We visited the building and submitted pricing for doors but recommended modernization of the elevator control system.  2 or 3 years later they called us back and we were fortunate enough to get the opportunity to work with the building.

Existing elevator & project scope – The elevator door equipment was replaced a few years ago and the elevator machines are in decent condition so we recommend retaining the machines for now and plan on replacement in the future.  The elevators were installed by US Elevator and any day you get the chance to replace US Elevator equipment is a good day.  Once upon a time US Elevator equipment ran well and there were plenty of people who were familiar with them.  As the years go by there are fewer and fewer people who have the domain knowledge to effectively maintain US Elevator equipment.  This was the first time I saw a duplex elevator with one running on 208VAC and one running on 480VAC.  I had a few calls and emails from the controller manufacturer asking me if I made a typo on the data sheets.

New equipment providers

Controllers – Smartrise Engineering

Motors – Imperial

Fixtures – Innovation Industries

Roller guides – SEES

Traction safety equipment – Hollister Whitney

Elevator interior – Cab Works

Traction elevator controller – You can look at the old controller and the new controller and see how simple the new controller looks compared to the 1970’s control system.

 [Old]

[New]

[New layout]

Elevator machines– Original Hollister Whitney Machines with new motors and a new paint job.  Machines run great!

[Old]

\

[New]

Elevator fixtures – We installed new ADA compliant Innovation fixtures.

[Old]

[New]

Roller guides – SEES manufacturers replacement roller guides for US Elevators, they worked great! Always important to pay attention to roller guides on Mods!

[Old]

[New]

Traction safety equipment – We installed new governors and rope grippers

[Old]

[New]

Elevator interiors – The elevator interiors were spruced up by Cab Works.

[New]

Kick off & Close out meetings – During any project this size there are bumps in the road.  We had a meeting with the full association prior to starting the project were we outlined the burn in period and potential issues after turn over.  We had some issues after turn over but quickly resolved them.  We had issues with the elevator interior company’s installation, cab looks great but we had to adjust the doors.  We all worked through it and now the cars look great and run great! 

Take away – Since we had free and open communication with the building before, during and after the project small headaches never became large headaches.  We had a great close out meeting and look forward to working with the building for many years to come.  The field team who did the installation did a great job on this one! This was a total team effort on Colley’s part, we had 16 people from the company who worked on the project from the first phone call to the final inspection.  

Hey! Sign up for our mailing list!  We should be getting a monthly email going out sometime in Q1 of next year.

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.