Below is a photograph and magnified photograph of a set of elevator hoist ropes (commonly referred to as “cables”), and no; that’s not what they’re supposed to look like.  What you’re seeing is an accumulation of red rust deposits or “rouge” brought about by lack of lubrication (two top pointers) and metal flake under the driving sheave brought upon by premature wear of the sheave grooves (two bottom pointers).

While there isn’t a predominant amount of breaks in the actual rope lays themselves, this is a situation that demands immediate attention.  Because of the extreme lack of maintenance associated with elevator wire rope maintenance on this application, these hoist ropes will need to be replaced relatively soon — alot sooner than if they were properly maintained. In fact, university and technical studies (accepted calculations) have determined that failing to lubricate can reduce the life of hoist ropes by over 50%. Fifty percent.

With respect to the machine sheave, research studies have illustrated the adverse effect of even a 15% difference in rope tension on a typical elevator installation.  When the load factor for the highest tension rope is out of proportion, that particular rope will be impacted dramatically and wear quickly (in other words, when one rope is bearing most of the load instead of the tension being distributed equally).  Conversely, lower tension ropes may exhibit a sliding action through the sheave groove and prematurely wear the rope and the sheave (as seen above). To illustrate the point, think about your car’s tires.  How many miles will a tire last if it is severely under- or over-inflated? A rope running in sheaves subjected to an unequal load (tension) will give comparable results.

For reference, these ropes are original, but only 17 years old.

And finally, some reasons that ropes will prematurely wear are as follows:

• Inadequate lubrication, or no lubrication at all.
• Failure to periodically test rope tensions (required).
• Increased (or increasing) car motion resistance – bad rollers or guides, etc.
• Excessive car vibrations.
• Obstructions making contact with ropes as the machine is running.
• Volatile hoistway conditions (excessive humidity, dirt, sea air, rain, etc)
• Improper shortening of ropes – twisting, tension imbalance, etc.

Have you seen your hoist ropes lately?  If you’re authorized to gain access to your building’s machine room, do yourself a favor and take a look.  Or…. call a consultant (shameless plug).

Due to a vast amount of inquiries into the requirements of elevator pits and pit equipment (from plumbers, electricians, etc), we have put together a short-list addressing these requirements for a quick reference of sorts. Be advised that this list may not cover all of the requirements, may not be applicable in all States, and it may not be 100% applicable to your particular project. There are separate requirements for new construction, maintenance and alterations, in addition to there being more stringent codes in different States, but we hope that this will address many of your concerns.

To begin, every elevator must have a pit. Now that we’ve established that, let’s move on to the heart of the requirements.

• Pits must be of fire-resistive construction, as should the partitions between elevator pits.
• The pit floor must be approximately level except that trenches or depressions shall be permitted for the installation of buffers, compensating sheaves and frames, and vertically sliding biparting hoistway doors, where structural conditions make such trenches or
  depressions necessary
• Permanent provisions must be made to prevent the accumulation of water in the pit. In other words, pits should be waterproofed and/or sealed.
• Drains and pumps must comply with the local plumbing code, and steps shall be taken to prevent water, gas and odors from entering the pit.
• Drains cannot be connected to main sewer systems (Florida Administrative Code 61C-5)
• If the elevator is equipped with fire service operations (and almost all new elevators are), sump pumps must be provided
• In Florida, a sump hole is required with or without a pump in every elevator pit that does not have a drain installed.
• Sump holes and pumps must be covered, secured, and level with the pit floor.
• Safe and convenient access shall be provided to all elevator pits
• Pit ladders are required in all pits that extend more than 35″ below the bottom landing sill
• The pit ladder must extend 48″ above the landing entrance.
• The pit ladder rungs must be at least 16″ wide unless obstructions prevent this, and in that case it can be no less than 9″ wide
• Pits shall be accessible ONLY to authorized personnel
• Pits must have a stop switch, and if more than one elevator in a hoistway, each elevator must have its own stop switch
• Pit switches must be accessible from the pit access door
• Two pit switches are required for each elevator where the pit extends more than 67″ below the bottom landing sill - one near the ladder, and another approximately 47″ above the pit floor (wired in series).
• Where the distance from the pit floor to the underside of the plank channels or slings exceeds 2 100mm(83 in.), with the car at the lowest landing, a means shall be permanently installed or permanently stored in the pit to provide access to the equipment on the underside of the car.
• Pit lighting shall be provided and 10 foot candles of illumination is required (A17.1 2004)
• Pit lighting must be guarded
• Where sprinklers are installed in the pit, all conduit, fittings, lighting covers, etc., must be NEMA4 rated and/or “vapor-proof”.
• In existing buildings, where new elevators are installed or existing elevators are altered, existing foundation footings extending above the general level of the pit floor shall be permitted to remain in place, provided that the maximum encroachment of such footings does not exceed 15% of the cubic content of the pit, and further provided that it is impracticable to remove the footing.
• When the car rests on its fully compressed buffer, no part of the car or any equipment attached thereto shall strike any part of the pit or any part of the equipment located therein (ANSI A17.3 1996 Code).

In Florida, if an elevator company is installing “retractable toe-guards”, they will need to pay close attention to the last bullet point. According to adopted code, no part of the elevator, or any equipment attached to it (platform guards, aka “toe guards”) can strike the pit. For verification, the floor is certainly a part of the pit.

Any other requirements? Certainly. As we said, this is just a short-list. There are a myriad of code requirements for traction elevators as well as hydraulic elevators, and any qualified consultant can spell them all out for you in detail.

Finally.

After months of calls and letters, the State of Florida Bureau of Elevator Safety has taken a hard stance on the adoption and enforcement of A17.3 (Safety Code for Existing Elevators).

Industry bulletin #2008-03 addresses the statutory requirements for code compliance and goes so far as to actually spell out the code requirements for the inspection of elevators in Florida. According to the bulletin, the following are the adopted and enforceable codes for inspections in Florida.

• Chapter 399 (Florida Statute)
• Florida Administrative Rule 61C-5
• Florida Building Code Chapter 30
• ASME A17.1 2004 with 2005 Addenda
• ASME A17.2 2004
• ASME A17.3 1996
• ASME A18.1 2003

By the way, let’s keep in mind that the aforementioned codes are only the minimum requirements with regard to elevator safety requirements. We’ll say it again: T-H-E M-I-N-I-M-U-M requirement.

Also addressed in this bulletin is the requirements for elevator inspections and the responsibility of the building owners in that regard. As has been the belief and stance of Alliance Elevator Consultants, the building owner is responsible for the scheduling of inspections and is responsible for ensuring the periodic tests are witnessed by an INDEPENDENT third party inspector. In other words, an inspector he or she hires; not an inspector your service company hires.   This belief, and our position, have been validated as well through this release.

After countless attempts to get these things in writing, Alliance Elevator Consultants and SCORES of other inspection and consulting companies have finally received their reward.

Question is, will anything really change?

Next task - how about some repercussions for ignoring this?

Below is a photo of a geared traction machine that has completely run out of gear oil, and worse; the gear oil leak has traveled over to the brake drum, soaking the brake pads.

All the red arrows point to places on the machine where gear oil is escaping. The problem here is two-fold. One, the machine is all but void of gear oil, causing the worm gear and ring gear to wear far more prematurely than expected. Two, the oil has traveled to the brake drum, and subsequently soaked the brake pads with oil. When our consultants visited this job, they instructed the building owner to place the elevator out of service.

Why? I’ll tell you why.

Suppose the elevator was running high speed in the down direction from the top floor (a 14 story building) and suddenly the power in the building was lost. One of two things can happen here…

The elevator machine would instantly apply the brake, but the chances of an oil soaked brake pad stopping a fully accelerated elevator are slim to none. Chances are, the elevator would continue to run through the brake, gain speed, and either (a) trip the governor overspeed thereby bringing the elevator to a violent halt, or (b) continue to run full speed onto the pit buffers causing an even more violent stop.

If you’re passenger in this elevator under either one of those conditions, the end result would be nothing short of disturbing. While there is a very slim chance that the elevator would stop normally, there was no reason for us to believe it would - or could.   So in the interest of public safety (our primary concern), we recommended the elevator be taken out of service, and a call to the elevator maintenance company be made immediately.

This was taken care of in short order, but the rest of the report took quite a bit longer.

Believe it or not, that’s an extremely common question. 99.9% of the time, the elevator in question is a hydraulic elevator - typically from 2-8 floors. What causes that noise is a lack of hydraulic fluid in the reservoir. Whenever a hydraulic elevator system has a leak - of any kind - the fluid lost does not return to the reservoir (or tank), and the system then lacks the necessary amount of oil needed to push the piston the full length of travel in the hoistway. The result is air entering the line as the system cavitates. In short, when the elevator gets to the top floor, the noise you hear is the pump trying to push the piston without a sufficient amount of oil. It’s loud, and for those not in the know, it’s scary.

Some common reasons a hydraulic system would lose oil:

• A leaking seal around the piston
• Worn hoses
• Bad pump gaskets
• Worn valve seals or O-rings
• Collection means in the pit not functional

And more serious problems:

• Leaking supply piping (oftentimes underground)
• A hole (very small one) in the underground cylinder

Both of the last examples are very serious problems and are always extremely costly. Underground piping will most often get re-routed above ground if it is physically possible. A leak in the underground cylinder (or “jack”) requires removing the piston, pulling the cylinder out of the ground, redrilling the hole and replacing the cylinder. Pricing for those repairs are always in the thousands of dollars.

Segue……….

Whenever you’re faced with a repair of that magnitude, secure the services of a qualified elevator consultant and let him/her determine the seriousness of the problem, and when necessary, secure the prices of at least 3-4 other elevator companies to do the work. Whatever you end up paying a consultant for that service will be offset considerably by the amount of money you can save through the competitive bidding process.

Well that all depends.

If you have an elevator inspector that you frequently use, and one that’s tough on both the elevator maintenance company AND the building owner, then chances are your elevator equipment is in fairly decent working order. If, however, you’re not familiar with your inspector and you notice things that are visual to the riding public that are going unchecked (cracked buttons, burned out bulbs, phones not working, alarm bells not ringing, etc) and these things are not being revealed on an inspection report, then you may have cause for concern.

As reported in an earlier article, the responsibility of the elevators, with respect to safety, falls on the building owner. Get to know your inspector — particularly if they’re being hired by your elevator service company (not recommended). Take the initiative to ask questions if you have any. If you’re not sure what to ask, here are a few examples:

1.  What do you look for during your inspection?
2.  Is there anything I am responsible to correct?
3.  Is my maintenance company doing a good job?
4.  Is my elevator “ADA Compliant”?
5.  Is (insert specific elevator concern here) normal?
6.  Are all records up to date and on the premises?

Any reputable independent elevator inspector will be happy to address any concerns you have and should be checking in with you prior to arriving and leaving the premises. Take a look at the inspection report he/she provides you and compare that to any concerns you have, or any specific tenant complaints. Ultimately, if you really want to be sure your elevator is safe and in good working order, you’ll have to be a bit proactive.

After all, it IS your responsibility.