Elevator 101 – Elevator Education For Property Managers

 

One of the bigger challenges in buildings for property managers can be their elevators and managing their elevator contractors. Get an inside view of what you should know to educate your buildings when times are good as well as when they could be better.

Join us June 6th at 11:00 am for our first ever Elevator 101 Lunch and Learn workshop. We will be discussing:

 

• The basics about elevators and their main components.
• The most common violations and how to avoid them.
• Code updates and how they affect your equipment.
• Realistic expectations based on the elevator's usage and traffic patterns.
• Dealing with obsolete equipment.
• Capital planning for the future.
• Program designed and given by Qualified Elevator Inspectors[QEI]

Lunch will be provided.

Angelo’s Ristorante
247 N. York
Elmhurst, IL 60126

Tuesday June 6th, 2023

11:00am

RSVP to Cathy@colleyelevator.com

We will also be raffling off some Yeti and Northface Colley Elevator gear. Show up, sit down, eat and learn. The next time you are at a board meeting and there are elevator questions and headaches, you will be better informed and can help the building make better decisions.

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.

Hydraulic Elevator Modernization – Itasca, IL – Freight Elevator – In Memoriam Ray Zomchek 1935-2023

In 1963 Ray Zomchek did the engineering for a project at the Itasca Country Club – Itasca, IL for Gallaher & Speck Elevator[Dover/Rotary Rep at the time].  In 2023 Craig Zomchek did the engineering for a modernization project at the Itasca Country Club – Itasca, IL for Colley Elevator.  We came across the original construction drawings a number of years ago when we did a site visit to the building that have RAZ[Raymond Anthony Zomchek] listed as the draftsman.

[Title block of final engineering drawings listing RAZ]

[Original blue print for construction]

Existing elevator & project scope – The elevator is/was a very small freight elevator installed in 1963 with manual gates and doors.  This elevator is the heart beat to the building that has events and functions all year long.  Over the years we had seen a decline in the elevator’s ability to service the building reliably.  We recommended a full overhaul of the elevator system with exception of keeping the hydraulic power unit that was replaced within the last 5 years.

New equipment providers

Controllers – Smartrise Engineering

Door equipment & Cab – EMS Freight doors

Sling, platform & cylinder - EECO

Fixtures – Innovation Industries

Power unit – Quality w/Maxton valves[existing]

Elevator controller – The existing Rotary/Dover relay logic control system was having some challenges keeping up with the building’s demand. We installed a new Smartrise Engineering hydraulic elevator controller that will be a good fit for now for the next 25-30+ years.

 

[1963/64 Rotary/Dover Elevator hydraulic elevator controller]

[2023 Smartrise Engineering hydraulic elevator controller]

Elevator door equpiment – I’m not quite sure whose door equipment was in prior to modernization but it was replace with new EMS freight door equipment & cab.

 

[Old elevator interior]

[New EMS cab and gate]

[Old hoistway doors]

[New EMS Freight elevator hoistway doors]

Elevator fixtures – We installed Innovation Industries hall and car fixtures to replace the original Dover/Rotary.   Notice the A17.1 2019 Visual display on the new car station.

 

[Old CJ Anderson car station]

[New Innovation Industries car station w/A17.1 2019 visual/text communication]

Hydraulic power unit – We removed the Rotary dry power unit with a new Quality submersible power unit with a Maxton UC4 valve[2019].

[Old elevator machine room]

[Machine room after modernization]

Elevator cylinder – We removed the Rotary/Dover elevator cylinder and installed a new EECO jack unit.

[Elevator pit and cylinder before modernization]

 

[Elevator pit and cylinder after modernization]

Take away – We encourage building owners take a proactive approach to equipment replacement.  This old beat worked well for the building for many many years and was fine.  We were encountering brittle wires and general fatigue in the control system.  The building decided to do an “everything but the rails” approach so they can have a reliable elevator for many years to come.

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 14 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!  Let’s not forget our great material supplier participation!

In memory of Ray Zomchek 6/13/35 to 5/18/23.

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.

Mechanic charged with homicide in fatal NYC elevator plunge

 

NEW YORK (AP) — An elevator mechanic’s failure to execute basic safety procedures caused an elevator at a New York City building to plunge six stories and crush a co-worker to death, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Mechanic Peter Milatz, 67, was charged with criminally negligent homicide for the Feb. 18, 2021 death of apprentice mechanic Joseph Rosa, 25, at a Bronx building where the men were working to modernize the elevator.

According to prosecutors, Milatz and Rosa were working on replacing the steel ropes between the elevator cabin and the counterweight when Milatz told Rosa to go to the pit at the bottom of the shaft.

At Milatz’s instruction, prosecutors said, Rosa secured the counterweight, then used a small saw to cut through the ropes. The elevator cabin plunged down the shaft and crushed Rosa. Prosecutors said Milatz had failed to carry out a procedure called hanging the elevator cabin, which prevents the elevator from falling when the ropes are cut. Additionally, they said, he had earlier removed a safety feature called the governor, which triggers the elevator’s braking system, in order to replace it with a new one. The replacement didn’t fit, but instead of reinstalling the old governor, Milatz allegedly continued to work on the elevator without the safety feature, prosecutors said.

“The defendant allegedly failed to comply with multiple safety protocols, and because of those faults the elevator car plunged six stories, killing his co-worker,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a news release. “If safety measures had been followed, the victim would still be alive today.”

Milatz, a resident of upstate Orange County, was arraigned in state Supreme Court in the Bronx and given supervised release. He is due back in court on June 8.

A phone message seeking comment was left with Milatz’s attorney.

Rosa had married a few months before his death and was looking forward to a bright future with his bride, Karina Stepanova-Rosa, the Daily News reported.

“He made my life as beautiful as possible,” Stepanova-Rosa told the newspaper. “He was a real big light in all of our lives. He is the most amazing person I ever met, and his friends, everyone is just shattered by this.”

Source - https://apnews.com/article/fatal-elevator-plunge-homicide-charge-new-york-b08eb309282d7f5b959b4808757102a5