Traction Elevator modernization – Evanston, IL

This was a pretty great project to have completed.  Colley was originally at the building in 2009 for fireman’s recall needing to be hooked up on a Vertitron Midwest controller that was installed in 1994/95.  The company who installed the controller was still the maintenance contractor so we suggested they complete the modification with their current vendor.   In 2015 we came back to the building and for the next 4 years we quoted various items for the building.  In 2019 the building agreed to work with us on a much needed full modernization.

Existing elevator & project scope – The existing elevator was installed in the 1960’s by Westinghouse Elevator and the controller only was modernized by an independent in 1994/95.  The elevator machine was leaking, the car was showing signs of fatigue and was ready to be refreshed.

New equipment providers

Controllers – Smartrise Engineering

Machine – Hollister Whitney

Door equipment - GAL

Fixtures – Innovation Industries

Traction elevator controller – The elevator controller was state of the art in 1994 and included the VH 80 traction box by Vertitron with an older Mitsubishi motor drive that had been replaced a few times.  We replaced the elevator controller with a Smartrise C4 elevator controller which cut down our wire count from controller to car and gave us a great new programming and troubleshooting platform.

 [Old Vertitron traction elevator controller]

[New Smartrise C4 traction elevator controller]

Elevator machine– The existing machine was from the original installation a Westinghouse that was leaking from everywhere.  There was a foot print concern but with HWEC’s new motor flange machine it worked out great!

[Old Westinghouse traction elevator machine]

[New Hollister Whitney traction elevator machine]

[New Hollister Whitney traction elevator machine]

Elevator fixtures – This one was a challenge.  We had 3 panels on the return, car station, phone and fireman’s service phase II panel.  While it isn’t perfect, I think it turned out pretty good considering what we had to start with.

 

[Old Westinhouse car station - Not ADA compliant]

[New Innovation Industries car station - ADA compliant]

[Old main landing hall station layout - not ADA]

[New main landing hall station landing - ADA compliant]

Door equipment – This elevator was a great candidate to replace all of the MAC and old Westinghouse door equipment and install new GAL.  We gave the option to the building and they moved forward with it.

[A combination of MAC equipment & Westinghouse equipment]

[All new GAL door equipment - start with a fresh slate!]

Car top & Misc – All the wiring on the car top and hoistway was replaced, a new governor was installed.  The new door operator and car top layout makes it much easier to get around on the small car top.

[Small car top could have been laid out better]

[Still a small car top with a better layout]

[Old Westinghouse governor]

[New Hollister Whitney governor]

Take away – This was a total team effort on Colley’s part, we had 15 people from the company who worked on the project from the first phone call to the final inspection.   We were fortunate to have a great team from our crane company, La Grange Crane, work with our project team and supervisor to zip the new machine almost straight into the machine room.  Everyone onsite that day did a wonderful job to make sure we had a great pick, lift and set down.  We had a busy street, an interesting alley and challenging layout roof to maneuver. Team work makes the dream work!

Hey! Sign up for our mailing list!  Each month you will get some great info on Colley!  It is short and quick to run through, you’ll like it!

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

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

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.

 

Hey! Sign up for our mailing list!  Each month you will get some great info on Colley!  It is short and quick to run through, you’ll like it!

 

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

 

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

Hydraulic Elevator Modernization – ESCO Elevator – River Forest, IL

This project was at a building that was built in 1967 and the building was frustrated with the inconstancy of the elevator system and the longer and longer time it took to get a shutdown repaired and parts.   We did not maintain this elevator prior to modernization and worked with a building a year and half in advance of their modernization so they had time to get out of their existing maintenance agreement and the residents had time to prepare for the 4-5 week project.  

 Existing elevator & project scope – The existing elevator was an ESCO Hydraulic Elevator from 1967 with all of its original components still servicing the building.  It is always impressive to see a 50+ year old piece of equipment that runs well for its age.  Our scope was to replace all of the electrical and mechanical components of the elevator system with new.

 New equipment providers

 Controllers – Smartrise Engineering                                                                                   Power units – MEI                                                                                                                 Door operators – GAL                                                                                                          Fixtures – Innovation Industries                                                                                          Elevator cylinder - EECO

Machine room layout – One of the big challenges we have when working with older buildings is their existing machine room.  This machine room also includes other mechanicals or storage.  The project team and electrician where able to work together and get a good spot to get all of our NEC electrical clearances.  The old disconnect was tucked behind the elevator motor starter panel.

[Old elevator machine room]

[New machine room layout]

Hydraulic elevator controller – the original controller is an ESCO relay logic system.  Historically these will have open/close relay issues and general relay issues that require an old school relay tester for proper resolution.  We replaced this with a new Smartrise hydraulic elevator controller.

[Old ESCO relay logic controller]

[New Smartrise engineering hydraulic elevator controller]

Hydraulic elevator power unit – The existing ESCO power unit was still there with a newer EECO UV5 valve that had been replaced 10+ years ago.

 

[Old dry ESCO power unit with EECO UV5 hydraulic control valve]

[New submersible power unit with Maxton UC4 valve]

Door operators – Original GAL MOD operator was replaced with a GAL MOVFR door operator and car and hatch equipment.

[Old car top and GAL MOD door operator]

[New car top top and GAL MOVFR door operator]

 Elevator car station – The old ESCO fixtures from the original installation replaced with new Innovation car and hall fixtures.  We moved the location of the elevator car station to the return because the new car station is larger than the older one to meet ADA requirements and the side wall has a brace rod running diagonal preventing us reusing this wall. 

 

[Old ESCO car station]

[New Innovation Car Station]

Elevator hall station fixtures – The new main landing car station is packed with new devices and needs to be ADA compliant.

[Old 1st floor lobby]

[New 1st floor lobby]

Take away – The elevator modernization was long overdue, most of the equipment was well worn and serviced the building for many years past its life expectancy.  We had a great leadership ground from the building to work with, a great property management team and our project teams did great on this.  14 people at Colley Elevator from the first phone call to the final inspection had touch points on this project.  At times, we forget that while we have a sales person and a project team there are many people in-between that help make this project a success.

Hey! Sign up for our mailing list!  You get an email once a month with some of our highlights from the blog and news.

 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.