Colley Elevator is an independent elevator maintenance, service, new construction & modernization company in the Chicagoland area.
Colley Elevator completes a lot of cylinder replacement projects. Each project is unique, each project takes a team to complete. This particular project is one that took a team of 12 from start to finish to complete.
We got a phone call from a building owner indicating he had gotten our phone number from a retired elevator inspector and asked if we did elevator cylinder work. We told him, yes we do, we do more cylinder work than any other company in the Chicago area. We made a time to visit the building and the elevator was shut down and locked out and on pipe stands. The sales person went out and after initial review there was some signs that this could have been a false positive because of a few things. The last thing we want to do is replace a cylinder that was misdiagnosed. We had a free service team in the area and they came over, did some diligence and retested the cylinder and indeed the incumbent company was correct, it was a cylinder leak. No charge to the building, something we like to do just to be 100% we have a leak.
It took a few weeks for the building to decide who to work with, they ended up working with Colley. We had the measurements from our first visit so we were able to order everything right away. The cylinder took about 4-5 weeks to get. When we found out it was actually going to ship, we pulled the cylinder out. While the cylinder was being pulled out the new cylinder & piston hit the dock, we prepared it with a tape coat wrap for extra protection.
When the cylinder came out the hole did not look promising. The hole backfilled on itself and we only had a 7” diameter hole. We notified the building owner that this did not look good and prepare the building for a well driller. But! First we were going to give it our best shot. We bought a cylinder bag instead of using rigid PVC, we scheduled the debris removal truck, we scheduled the welder to be there the same day. Good news! Debris removal truck got us a 24” diameter hole and welder zipped it up, we pretested the welds[not too many companies still pretest welds, we believe this is very important before it gets buried.] and plumbed the cylinder. A few days later, we are back filled, the piston is in and car is unhung.
Equipment providers
Cylinder - Elevator Equipment Corporation EECO
Shut off valve - Maxton
While the building owner sees or talks to 3 or 4 people from Colley behind the scenes there was 12 people who worked on this project in one form or another. Without each person doing their part of the project it would not have been a success. From top to bottom this was a complete team effort! Project team kicked tail! A win for the building! A win for Colley! Good work everyone!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We have always had a challenge when we have
water contaminate the hydraulic fluid in elevator systems. It could
be from a water pipe breaking in the machine room or the pit flooding or a rec
pump, pumping water back into the reservoir. What do you do?
We had 2 issues in the last 2 months
of massive water contamination of hydraulic fluid in oil reservoirs. We will
discuss one that occurred in Arlington Heights, IL which we just completed the
process of replacing the valve and hydraulic fluid.
What happened – We got a call that pipes where breaking in the building and one of them was in the elevator machine room. This had occurred before so there was a pan above the drop ceiling to catch the water. However the pipe break overwhelmed the pan and it sent 50+ gallons of water onto and into the hydraulic power unit. The entire power unit should have been replaced but the building opted to do the valve and the hydraulic fluid.
What did we do? The elevator valve was replaced, oil was
replaced but there was still a lot of water in the system within the hydraulic
piping and cylinder. This was caused by the elevator running during the water leak.
What happens if there is still water in the system after you replace the hydraulic fluid – If there is still water in the system eventually the valve will start to build up rust/corrosion and create leveling problems. That new valve you installed will be rusty inside and you will have trip and fall potentials. You may also experience other general shut downs from the small ports in the valves getting clogged and the pistons not moving as freely as they need to for proper operation. If not taken care of, you can have a major safety issue on your hands.
How do you get the rest of the water out of the system? There is a wonderful device from Gorman that filters and removes water from the hydraulic fluid. Typically when we have water contamination, we remove as much hydraulic fluid as we can, replace it and run this machine for 30-60 days until the contamination is gone. No problem we move on to the next building.
Final result – The final result was clean and clear oil ahead of schedule in less than 30 days.
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
This
is the 4th in our series of end of life/obsolete elevator control
systems. We have a ton of these in the
Chicago market. The MH 2000 is not that
old of an elevator system platform that was installed from the mid 1990’s to
early 2000’s but as we progress with technology and code requirements we see the
obsolescence time line shrink. This controller is now considered obsolete.
What’s the story? Virginia Controls is a great control company from Richmond, VA and has been producing elevator controllers since 1967. The MH 2000 was a strong reliable control system but the manufacturer had some issues sourcing some of the components a few years ago and with the progression of their controller line, part sourcing issues and the evolution of code requirements Virginia decided to discontinue supporting this specific platform. Their solution is a retrofit kit with the MH 3000
Who this impacts – If you have a MH 2000 control system you should begin putting money away for a control modernization. There are still parts available, we have parts, but when they are gone, they are gone.
Are parts still available? – Yes and no. We have had good luck with getting parts an stocking parts for the MH 2000. The first time we had an issue with getting a board, we waited until Virginia restocked and bought a lot of parts. We bought a lot of spare parts because we have a lot of these in our portfolio. As with everything, we had a rash of boards go out at the same time at different buildings, we over stocked replacement parts and we haven’t used many lately. But! When the parts are gone, they are gone and there is a significant lead time for a new controller retrofit from Virginia or a new controller from a different vendor. Virginia offers expedited lead times but you pay a premium.
Trip counter – One specific elevator contractor in the Chicago area had a trip counter installed on these controllers that requires someone to manually reset the elevator controller every X number of days/trips. Most of these trip counters have been removed with an upgrade but there are still some out there.
Take
away –
If you have one of these controllers in your building get a plan together with
your elevator contractor. See if they
have replacement parts and how many. If
your CPU goes out, do they have a replacement?
How many? When it rains it pours,
be aware that there are a lot of these out there and if a few have issues at
the same time and require spare parts, you are pulling from the same spare part
pool which is finite.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Door operators – Original GAL MOD
operator was replaced with a GAL MOVFR door operator and car and hatch
equipment.
Elevator hall station
fixtures
– The new main landing car station is packed with new devices and needs to be ADA compliant.
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.
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