Hydraulic elevator modernization – Oak Park, IL

 

This is a story about a building that was built in the late 1960’s.  We initially went to the building in 2008 to bid some State of Illinois Mandate work[someone else did the work] and began working with the building in 2014 for elevator maintenance.  This is a pretty vanilla condominium in a Chicago suburb called Oak Park.  The building is full of working class and seniors. As an elevator industry we sometimes forget for these buildings this is a huge decision for them, one of the largest expenditures they will make during their tenure on the board or even living in the building, not to mention how important the elevator is to some of the residents.  I was pretty excited about this modernization, nothing flashy, just great people who live in the building who will love their new elevator!

Existing elevator & project scope – We replaced all of the original electrical and mechanical equipment; controller, fixtures, power unit, door operator.  The building really needed the upgrade to be able to service their aging population that depends on their elevator to run 24/7 for their 1960s vintage ESCO Elevator

New equipment providers

Controllers – Smartrise

Door operators – GAL MOVFR

Fixtures – Innovation Industries

Power unit – Quality w/Maxton UC 4 valve

Elevator controllers – The existing elevator controller was an ESCO Elevator controller and was having reliability issues.  While all of the issues where resolvable they began taking longer and longer to resolve due to the older elevator controller[wire fatigue, relay issues, door circuit issues, etc].

 

[Old ESCO Elevator controller]

[New Smartrise Engineering hydraulic elevator controller]

Elevator door operators – We replaced the 55 year old GAL MOD door operator with a GAL MOVFR door operator

 

[Old car top with 55 year old GAL MOD door operator]

[Updated car top with GAL MOVFR door operator]

Elevator fixtures – We installed Innovation Industries hall and car fixtures to replace the original ESCO Elevator fixtures.

[Old ESCO Elevator fixtures]

[New Innovation Industries car station]

[Old ESCO Elevator 1st floor hall station]

[New Innovation Industry 1st floor hall station at ADA height with code required items incorporated]

Hydraulic power unit – We removed the ESCO Dry unit and installed a Quality Elevator submersible power unit with a Maxton UC4 hydraulic control valve.

[Old ESCO Elevator dry power unit]

[New machine room layout]

[New Quality Elevator hydraulic power unit with Maxton UC 4 valve]

Take away – This was a very important decision for the board to understand the elevator modernization process, what was staying, what was being replaced and to get to know the team that was going to be doing the work.  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, 10 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.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.