Hydraulic elevator control modernization – Glen Ellyn, IL - US Elevator

 

We received a phone call from a building that was perfectly happy with their route person and not unhappy with the person they were dealing with in the office of their current elevator company.  They wanted a 2^nd opinion of their elevator equipment for modernization, we had a relationship with the property manager so they called Colley. The building had some "newer" US Elevator controls that are now obsolete.  As we went through the process of talking through the modernization the building gave us a shot at replacing the equipment.

Existing elevator & project scope – We replace the elevator controls, fixtures, wiring, door operators and valves.  After accessing the travel and speed of the car we did not want to put a submersible power unit in.  The building already had dry units so we pitched changing the valve, replacing all the victaulics and the pump and motors where in good condition so they could be retained.  The reason we didn’t replace the entire power unit was because the room was already too small and newer power units are larger than the ones they had installed.

Existing elevator machine room – We didn't have that many options with the existing machine rooms but the project team did a great job with making it work!

[Old elevator machine room]

[New elevator machine room]

New equipment providers

Controllers – Smartrise

Door operators – GAL MOVFR

Fixtures – Innovation Industries

Elevator controllers – The existing US controllers was the newer solid state they came out with prior to selling to TKE with three boards.  This typically is not the most user friendly system and fewer and fewer elevator mechanics are familiar with the system.   We opted to put a versatile backwards compatible Smartrise Engineering control system in.

[Old US Elevator hydraulic controller]

[New Smartrise Engineering hydraulic elevator controller]

Elevator door operators – We replaced the ECI door operators with GAL MOVFR II door operators and replaced all the hatch and door equipment while retaining the door tracks.

Elevator fixtures – We installed Innovation Industries hall and car fixtures which matched up well with the existing swing car panels.

[Old US Elevator car operating panel]

[New Innovation Industries car operating panel]

 

Take away – In this case we had a proactive building who was educated and understood that their existing equipment could cause a huge headache for them in the future.  It was great to see a building learn about their current equipment and want to be ahead of the problems that would inevitably manifest with the US Elevator control equipment.  Now the building has some great new nonproprietary elevator controllers and a fully nonproprietary elevator system.

Team work– The sales person and the project team who finishes typically get the glory on a project.  In between the initial contract sale and the final acceptance are many other people who work on the project to make it successful.  From the truck driver to the engineer to the billing department to the assist when needed 11 Colley Elevator employees where involved in the project and we had tremendous team work on it.  Thank you everyone without you we would not have had such a successful delivery!

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.

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