Colley Elevator’s 11th annual QEI education training – Keep on learning!

 

Each year for the last 11 years, Colley Elevator has been hosting inspectors from across the Chicago area as well as mechanics from Colley and other companies to attend QEI/Elevator code continuing education.  This year we had people from Colley Elevator, Elevator Inspection Services, Kone, Suburban Elevator, VDA and a few other organizations.  I got to sit in a room where a few of the guys had more years in the business than I am alive, these guys know something and have seen some things, we are lucky to have them.

This year we again had Joe Donnelly – PE conduct the training. Joe D has had a pretty incredible career starting out by working for Westinghouse Elevator as an apprentice, then field engineer, moving to Lerch Bates to start his consulting career and now at Donnelly & Associates doing elevator consulting and training.  He has had experience working on the State of Illinois Board as the technical advisor and currently is the Chair of the City of Chicago code committee and helped bring the City from a 2001 code to 2016.

The last year we have had some different activity and interpretations from the State of Illinois and we talked a lot about those items.  While we might not be happy with FAID or no Temp inspections, this is the environment we are living in currently.  Maybe it changes or time lines are extended, but for now, that is where we are at.

This year we reviewed – City – State code update, 2016 & 2019 A17.1 major code update, 2019 A17.1 Part 2 code update, 2019 A17.1 Part 3 code update, A17.1 Part 6 code update, A17.1 part 8.6 code update, FEO service review, A17.3 code review, NEC code update, A117.1 class, A17.2 routine inspection review, A17.2 periodic test review, City of Chicago 2018 code A17.1, City of Chicago 2018 code A17.3. Next year ready for 2022 code?

Take away – When I was 17 I knew everything, when I was 24 and had a few years in the business I thought I was on a path to quickly know everything, when I was 30 I was pretty sure I was an oracle.  At 44 I learn new things every day and have learned to listen because everything is not always black and white and the clarity of challenges evolve and become clearer with more time and information, it takes a team.   These two days a year are very long, we work all day and come to sit for 5 hours to (re)learn elevator code.  I learn so much from these two days, even if it is similar material, I get different things out of it each time I hear it. This year we had a lot of discussion on the code topics which was really great. We always have to keep learning and keep growing.

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.

NAEC 74th Annual Convention – Reno, NV

 

We had the opportunity to attend the NAEC’s 74^th annual convention September 10^th to September 13th.  It was great to get back and see some of our old friends, meet new friends, sit through education, be involved with talking points and walk around and see about 200 different vendors. 

What did I get out of it?  On a regular basis I’m asked what do I get out of going to the convention or other NAEC events.  I had a list of items from the office to look into while I was at the convention where you can talk face to face with suppliers. Meeting people face to face is much different than trading emails or even phone calls.  Challenges that occur over the year can be discussed and resolved in a matter of minutes.  The networking is wonderful, seeing friendly faces and talking to people that you email on a regular basis cannot be beat.  What I get the most out of is seeing my peers from independent contractors and seeing what is going on in their area and what they are doing and what challenges they are facing.   

Day 1 – Monday – We had a great key note speaker about working in a business environment; Create value, leave a positive wake and do you solve problems.  We went to the general business session and got an update on the NAEC.  Then to the contractor forum which was very quiet.   Education sessions in the afternoon where plenty we saw “what you need to know about Hydraulic MRLs, 2^nd Generation 2 way visual communications, Vertical transportation industry safety and education update.  There was a bit of a break and we went out with our new friends from Unitec for dinner then off to the Smartrise Engineering Party at the Reno Art Center.  

[Opening breakfast and speakers]

[Thank you to our sponsors]

[Always energetic Travis Hall from Alliance Elevator - MRL Hydros]

[2 way visual communciations - Rath]

[Safety committee - Best forum of the day]

Day 2 – Tuesday – The show opened and the convention floor was flooded with contractors going to suppliers booths from around the world.   You can spend the whole day visiting the people you email or talk to on the phone as well as seeing new vendors you haven’t met before.  The NAEC had a great slate of continuing education going on at all times during the convention. The NAEC hosted a reception after the floor closed which got a little wild.  A ton of people a ton of fun.

 

[The convention floor opens]

[Controller - Alpha Elevator Traction]

[Controller - Elevator Systems Traction]

[Controller - MCE Traction]

[Imperials answer to the Kone MRL motor]

[Canton's new power unit]

[4 drink minimum(at a time) - let it rip at the reception]

Day 3 – Wednesday – The awards breakfast was first.  The best of show awards were given out for best single, multiple, island and spirit of the show.  Congratulations to those who won!  Our personal friend Gary Schutte of Midwest Elevator – St. Louis, MO won the highest award in the NAEC, The Sturgeon Award.  And we saw the passing of the baton from John Tolar of United Elevator Services, LLC to Sean Madden of Southwest Elevator.  We did a bit more floor time then it was time to go back on the air plane to head home.  We did miss the Dregs Party which is always a good time!

[Awards Breakfast]

[Sturgeon winner Gary Schutte - Midwest Elevator]

[Controller - Smartrise Engineering Traction]

[New GAL clutch with gate interlock - No more facia?]

[MEI - new muffler with no maintenance]

[Love this group!  Colley has been working with them since 1963]

Emphasis on safety – The NAEC is doing a great job with their thorough safety program and working with OSHA.  Dave Smarte who is now on NAEC staff is an incredible resource for our industry.  From my time with Dave on the Board of Directors I’ve always held a very high regard for his work in the safety realm.  We had a lot of take aways during our sessions having to do with safety that we are using at home at our company.

Why you should go – Meet the best in the business, exchange ideas, get challenged, come back to your company with new ideas, see new products and be a better elevator person. 

2024 Convention – Atlantic City, NJ

2025 Convention – Houston, TX

2026 Convention – Chicago, IL - Yes its coming to our home.  Gary Schutte - You may have won the Sturgeon award, Midwest Elevator may have won the Ellie and you have a great company with great coworkers but he isn't having a convention in his home town!

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.

Chicago Elevator Association – September Meeting – VDA Elevator Consulting

 

The Chicago Elevator Association is the longest running elevator association in the United States. They had a great group at this month's meeting.

Jose Perez, Jeff Hart and Peter Long came and presented about the company they work at, VDA. VDA has been specializing in Consulting Services encompassing all phases of vertical transportation systems in both new and existing buildings. Since the inception in late 1980, their mission has been to bring together industry professionals with in-depth experience providing New Construction, Modernization, and Maintenance Evaluations for all types of elevators, escalators, and other systems under one roof.

While we still do see a lot of the traditional consulting roles of making a spec, choosing contractors to bid, reviewing bids, monitoring jobs and punching them out, we are seeing more behind the scenes work where they might only write the spec, or review bids on other contractors’ paper and do phone interviews while making their recommendations. We are seeing more maintenance audits and write ups at buildings that sometimes wouldn’t previously engage a consultant.

Jose & Co. did a great job laying out their product offering.

If you haven’t ever been or it’s been a while, come on by, take a seat, if you don’t know people, 5 minutes after you show up you will know a good amount of people at the meeting, that is the kind of people that go, ones that will make you feel welcome and will introduce you to people.

Next CEA events – November 2^nd – Elections and December is the Holiday Party.

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.

Elevator maintenance pride – Labor Day - Rolling Meadows, IL

Labor day is often considered the unofficial end of summer, but as the name suggests the day is meant to celebrate American laborers.  I had this whole thing written out how we went to these buildings in 2015 and they didn’t look great, between then and now we had been back and forth with the buildings about cleaning up their jobs and modernization.  The company/mechanic who took care of this monthly account could have done a better job. We recently signed the building’s up and got them cleaned up.  Our Colley teams and maintenance mechanics really did great work over at these buildings.

Our hats are off to the Colley team who made these elevators as great as they can be with the time they had.  To those who go out every day and give it their all, keep it up! 

[Before]

[After]

For all the workers who take pride in their jobs! Keep fighting the good fight, we appreciate your work!  Happy Labor Day!

[Before]

[After]

Do great things – every day!  We notice and love 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.

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

Traction Elevator Modernization – Evanston, IL

We recently turned over cars #6 & #7 for a building owner who has a campus in Evanston, IL.  This was a very daunting task due to spatial constraints in the elevator machine room.  The first time anyone walked into the machine room, there would be quite a bit of apprehension of how this would be completed.  The project team knocked it out of the park!

Existing elevator & project scope – We replaced the machine, elevator controller, fixtures, door operators and the associated door equipment on both elevators.

New equipment providers

Controllers – Motion Control Engineering

Door operators – GAL MOVFR w/new GAL equipment

Fixtures – Innovation Industries

Machine – Hollister Whitney

Cab interior & door frames – Eklunds

Hatch and car doors – Peelle Company

Elevator controller – The existing Otis Elevators were from 1952 and had served the building well.  However it was time for proactive upgrades to a newer, more reliable, elevator system that had more safety features.  The biggest upside here is we got to remove the Otis pie plate selectors which freed up a lot of room in the machine room.

[Old Otis 1952 traction elevator controller]

[New Motion Control Engineering[MCE] Traction elevator controller]

Elevator door operators – We replaced all of the existing Otis door equipment and door operator with new GAL components.

[Car top prior to elevator modernization]

[Car top after elevator modernization]

Elevator fixtures – We installed Innovation Industries hall and car fixtures to replace the original Otis/Adams fixtures. 

[Old elevator Adams car station push buttons]

[New Innovation industries car station push buttons]

Machine – We removed the Otis machines and installed new Hollister Whitney foot mounted motor machines. 

[Old Otis 1952 traction elevator machine]

[New Hollister Whitney traction elevator machine]

[Old Otis 1952 traction elevator machine]

[New Hollister Whitney traction elevator machine]

Elevator interiors & Door frames – Eklunds completed the cab interior work and door frames, Colley Elevator installed new car and hoistway Peele Doors. 

[Elevator door frames and doors before elevator modernization]

[Elevator door frames and doors after elevator modernization]

[Elevator interior after elevator modernization]

Building/GC relationship – The facility is part of a larger campus system that hired a GC/CM to work with us on this elevator project.  We have a great building owner and a great CM that helped our project team complete their project.

Take away – We encourage building owners take a proactive approach to equipment replacement.  When equipment gets to be 20-30 years old[in this case 70 years old], and a building’s expectations are that the elevators continue to run reliably, it is a good idea to start planning for the equipment's replacement and developing a plan.

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 crane assist we had 17 Colley Elevator employees who 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!

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.

Elevator Picture Hall of Fame 2023 – Volume 2

The Hall of Fame posts are typically some of the more popular blogs in the Colley blog history. We get to see a lot of elevators during the year at our initial visits for pricing or during engineering for projects.  Of the hundreds of elevators and thousands of pictures we look at, these are some of the gems I've seen this past year.

Gooey Goo – We actually ran into 2 or 3 EECO UV5 valves that had the same issue in the last few months.  Three of the same vintages valves, same gooey goo.

Ribbon Cable Medusa – We have been chasing an account for a number of years and I get to see this picture every year. Sadly the building has been saying “hey!  We are staying with our current vendor”.  This year is the year we get to start working on the mythical creature that has been hiding in the caves of Greece.   One size ribbon cable fits all!  

  

Remember These? – There are only a few things cooler in an elevator controller than a 3 ¼” floppy; a 5 ½” floppy and a cassette tape for memory back up.  I used these guys to play World Games on my parent's Apple IIgs!  Anyone for Caper Toss?  If you need a converter from 3 1/4" to USB just go to Radio Shack, they have them.

 

Fractured PVC – We did a cylinder project after taking over an account and were surprised when we pulled this up.  A bit of a surprise for the cylinder replacement team when this came out of the ground.  I get to go on most of our cylinder leaks to put a 2^nd set of eyes on them and thought it was a bit early for a 2000 era elevator to have a cylinder leak, but… now we know why.

 

I Love Electrical Tape – I like electrical tape as much as the next person but this is a bit much.  Jiminy Crickets this could have been done differently for a customer who paid for a new elevator modernization.

 

Great Pits – While most of the pictures in this post are laughable or disturbing, this is actually really great to see.  We have an elevator pit painted and well maintained.  I wish we would see more of this!  Great work whoever did this!

 

Furry Fan – I went to a few buildings in Rogers Park – Chicago, IL and sometimes they are not good fits for us.  I walked into this machine room and saw starter parts all over the floor and when I went on the car top, I saw this.  The elevator maintenance company was going once a month to this building and I’d imagine this fan had not been cleaned since it was installed sometime in 2006/7.  A fan isn’t going to make the elevator run better but it sure is indicative of the care that is being shown to the elevator system.  I'm shocked that the started contacts welded at this building.

 

Too Tall Jones – Someone should have put their glasses on making the elevator pit, that is a very tall corrective device on the bottom of the elevator.  

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.

Chicago Elevator Association Annual Golf Outing 2023 - Klein Creek Golf Course

 

The longest running elevator association in North America, Chicago Elevator Association, had their annual golf outing and Klein Creek Golf Course – Winfield, IL on 8/4/23.  It was a shot gun start at 1pm with dinner at 6:30pm.  We had over 100 people sign up for golf.

After golf was dinner and the legendary raffle!  A huge EESF 50/50 raffle.  Great golf, great dinner, great networking, great fun!  This is a great event where we get to interact with our suppliers and other elevator contractors in a relaxed laid back setting.  

Thank you to our sponsors for the outing

James Monroe

Parts Specialist

Adams Elevator

H & H Industrial Motor Service

CE Electronics

Canton Elevator

EMS Group

AFD

Mator

Donnelly & Associates

Dupar/ERM

Formula Systems

Vantage

Peelle

SCS

SEES

ESI

MEI

CJ Anderson

Innovation Industries

IUEC

Monitor Controls/Virginia Controls

Kings II

Hyperion

ELSCO

Smartrise

EPCO

Contech Fire Alarm

Quality Elevator

Draka

If you are a Chicago area elevator contractor, get involved.  If you are a supplier who isn’t part of the CEA, get involved.  It would be great to see you at our next meeting.

https://cea-online.org/

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.