Hydraulic Elevator Modernization – Montgomery MiProm – Des Plaines, IL

This is another building we did an incredible modernization project on that improved the reliability of the elevator system.  We had been talking to the building about equipment replacement since we took over the account 2012 to start giving them a chance to budget for this major project.

Existing elevator & project scope – The existing equipment in the building where Montgomery Mi Prom 7 story hydraulic elevators.  In Des Plaines, IL there are a lot of MiProms and a lot of US Elevators.  Neither MiProm or the US Elevator are user friendly controller, unless you are a Montgomery or US elevator mechanic that grew up on these. The good news is that a lot of the existing control systems are to a point where they are getting replaced.

 

New equipment providers

 

Controllers – Smartrise Engineering

Power units – MEI

Door operators – GAL MOVFR II w/MAC car and hatch door equipment

Fixtures – Innovation Industries

 

Hydraulic elevator controller – The original controllers have been through a lot including undersized original mainline disconnect wiring and very hot machine rooms.  Look at the difference in how many wires and boards from the old Miprom control system to the new Smartrise system.

 

[Old Montgomery MiProm Elevator Controller]

[New Smartrise Elevator Controls]

Hydraulic elevator power unit – The old Montgomery power unit was wearing and experiencing fatigue.  It also was leaking a decent amount.  This replacement was part of phase I which occurred a few years prior.

 

[Old Machine room layout]

[New machine room layout - after phase I]

Door operators – The elevator had MAC operator and equipment.  We replaced the operator with a GAL MOVFR and replaced the existing MAC equipment with new to reduce some of the expense with replacing with all GAL.

[Old MAC door operator]

[New GAL MOVFR door operator]

Elevator fixtures – The old Montgomery fixtures went away and new Innovation flush mount fixtures to meet ADA and elevator code requirements were installed.  Originally there was only 1 button stack so we put the new button stack on the other elevator to eliminate any downtime.  We also combined the directional arrow with a position indicator because the original man lobby fixture was already busy with all the devices, when adding the emergency communication, it became challenging to make everything fit.

[Old first floor fixture layout]

[New first floor fixture layout]

Take away – The big take away for this project was that a building planned for many years to do the project.  We started working with the building in 2015 on budgets and phasing.  We broke this project up into 3 phases many years ago; power units & soft starts, door operators and finally the control and operating system.  Eventually we decided to wait to complete phase 2 and 3 together and kept the cars running an additional year so it could all be done at the same time.

 

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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 or on our web page at www.colleyelevator.com

 

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