Are You Under Elevated? Part 3

Are you UNDER_Elevated?  Part 3

So far I have discussed increasing the speed of the door operation of your conveyance equipment and decreasing the floor to floor travel time. Both of these will bite off the biggest chunk of the problem of slow elevators, but, there is one thing that is rarely thought of when wait time for elevators is considered too long.  Have you had your service contractor check the performance of the elevators and compare that with the “contract speed”?

Contract speed is the speed the elevators were originally designed (and approved) to run at.  Codes dictate an elevator must run within plus or minus 10% of the designed speed but do you know what those are?  Most of the time it’s easy enough to find the contract speed, it should be stamped on a data plate fastened to the crosshead of the elevator car. The crosshead is a sort of main beam on top of the car.  Speed can be measured in several ways, by using a tachometer placed against the hoistway wall, by measuring the length of the hoistway and timing the run, or by placing an accelerometer inside the car and taking a measurement. I’m told that there is an app available on the i phone to do this. I haven’t yet seen it but I’m not at all surprised.

Speeds must be measured in both the up and down directions. If necessary the proper adjustments must be made to bring the actual speed  as close to the design speed as possible.

There can be several reasons why your equipment won’t reach the contract speed. In the case of hydraulic elevators if the cab is too heavy because of an interior upgrade by a contractor who didn’t consider the weight of the new materials, or if the pump is wearing out, the up direction can be affected. Keep in mind something simple to you like a marble floor can add significant weight to an elevator car thereby affecting the performance and placing undue strain on the components. Weight can also affect the down direction. If the elevator is equipped with a rupture valve (a valve that controls the flow of hydraulic fluid in the down direction) a technician may slow down the elevator so as not to trip the valve causing an entrapment. A hydraulic system is just that, a system. Everything must be in balance to work properly. Have the technician check the weight of the car, the capacity of the main control valve, and if so equipped, the capacity and speed of the rupture valve to assure synergistic operation. If an elevator designed to run at 150 feet per minute is only traveling up at 125 feet per minute due to a strained pump, and traveling at 120 feet per minute in the down direction due to an improperly calibrated rupture valve, you are being shortchanged. There is not only the cost in time but energy costs as well.  It doesn’t take long to check the speeds. Adjustment is a different matter but this is probably included in most of your contracts.

Much of the same applies in the case of a traction elevator. If contract speeds aren’t met you need to know why. If the car is too heavy it will have an effect on the motor, the brake, the sheaves, the cables and all of the system. If weight is too heavy, the elevator can “slide through the floor while the motor is trying to stop it causing undue wear on the cables and sheaves. If the governor is too sensitive and the technician slows the system down to prevent entrapments, maybe it’s time to look at a new more modern type of governor.  In the case of a “heavy” car it may be possible to add more weight on the counterweight side to balance the system. To do that there must be:

 1. Room in the counterweight frame for additional weights, and

2.  An engineering study to assure the structural components can bear the additional weight.

A traction system, just like a hydraulic system must be in balance to work synergistically and effectively.

That’s about all for today but next time I think I need to post a little information aboutr elevator interiors.

As always, any ideas, input or comments are appreciated. Especially want to thank my regular readers for your emails and compliments and insightful questions.  It shows you’re reading, understanding, and thinking!

For now I’ll leave you with the following quotes:

“When my boss asked me who is the stupid one, me or him? I told him everyone knows he doesn’t hire stupid people”

Anonymous

OR

“They say that love is more important than money, but have you ever tried to pay your bills with a hug?”

Anonymous

That Anonymous guy sure is clever. I wonder what his first name is?

Don’t forget to email me (elevatorernie@hotmail.com). Your suggestions and questions are always welcome.

Thank you,

Ernie

Are you UNDER_Elevated?  Part 2

How many times have you heard your building occupants complaining about slow elevators in your building?  I think elevator companies should devise some method of determining how many times the passenger hits the hall call button before the elevator finally arrives. Slow elevators incur a myriad of costs.  Hall buttons need more frequent replacement, productive work time is lost, and reputations suffer causing reductions in rent for landlords. It’s difficult to come up with an exact method of quantifying these costs but I think you understand what I’m talking about.  I’m sure also that the readers can come up with several other problems.

In the last writing I discussed door operation.  Opening doors faster can make a significant difference, especially in buildings with many floors.

Next we can talk about what is called the “profile” of an elevator. In this context profile refers to the way the elevator goes through the process of starting out speeding up approaching the desired floor, slowing down, and then stopping at the floor, otherwise known in the industry as “flight time”. The differentiation between the three stages is called “transitioning”.

These three stages can be configured in many different ways to achieve many different purposes.  All  of this folds into a category called ride quality.  At the very beginning elevators start slowly to try and avoid a jerk. Many  traction elevators operate at a top speed of 350 to 500 feet per minute.  350 feet per minute translates into 3.98 miles per hour. Now if 4 miles per hour doesn’t seem like a real fast start imagine a car with a chair attached to the front of it coming at you at 4 miles per hour and “catching you” while in a sitting position. I’ll bet that would jar your body pretty good and if you missed ….ouch!  So the elevator has to start and ramp from 0 to 4mph without jerking your pants down or causing some other such wardrobe failure.  By the same token it should not come to an abrupt stop.  Another experiment would be to place an uncovered cup of coffee in your car, let it roll up to 4 mph and then slam on the brake. See what happens?  When we get on elevators we aren’t prepared for sudden stops and starts.

What CAN be done though is to measure those transition zones and shorten them. This is a tradeoff between comfort and convenience that, if done properly, most passengers should not mind.  If adjusted properly it will hardly be noticeable.  You still must maintain the smoothness of the ride.  These adjustments are limited by the particular ability of your equipment to respond to it’s signaling devices. By that I mean if your elevator id moving too fast when it gets to the device that signals it to stop it will overshoot the floor. Now you have a tripping hazard.  In most cases zones have room to be minimized thus speeding up the floor to floor trip.  This takes a great degree of skill on the part of your elevator mechanic so when he or she performs this task for you make sure to monitor the leveling quality for a few days to assure precision landings.

Some hydraulic elevators are set to creep in VERY slowly to the floor. This costs a significant amount of energy because the motor runs a lot longer and contributes to heating of the oil in a busy elevator. Hydros are more tricky to adjust but a talented mechanic should be able to do the job for you. You may end up purchasing a system to maintain the temperature of the oil within a certain range because cold and hot oil have different viscosities and that can cause irregularities in performance.

These options should be discussed with your elevator contractor and if they can be implemented it should not cost an arm and a leg. Just make sure you monitor the results to keep the ride satisfactory for your building occupants.

That’s all for now! If any of you have other suggestions please let me know.

Until next time, as always, any ideas, input or comments are appreciated. Especially want to thank my regular readers fro your emails and compliments. Don’t be afraid to ask.

For now I’ll leave you with the following quotes:..

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.
Peanuts

Or…

Hell is a place where the motorists are French, the policemen are German, and the cooks are English.
Author Unknown

Don’t forget to email me (elevatorernie@hotmail.com). Your suggestions, comments, and questions are always welcome.

Thank you,

Ernie

Are You UNDER ELEVATED?

Are you UNDER_Elevated?

How many times have you heard your building occupants complaining about slow elevators in your building?  I think elevator companies should devise some method of determining how many times the passenger hits the hall call button before the elevator finally arrives. Slow elevators incur a myriad of costs.  Hall buttons need more frequent replacement, productive work time is lost, and reputations suffer causing reductions in rent for landlords. It’s difficult to come up with an exact method of quantifying these costs but I think you understand what I’m talking about.  I’m sure also that the readers can come up with several other problems. (send me a list if you can).

Architects usually start out with the best of intentions and they have formulas for calculating the occupancy of buildings. However there is no formula for the changes that can occur in the life of a building. Structures can be converted from industrial to business or residential us; from business to public use, or retail etc, etc. I think the only thing we can count on here is that the structure will not end up serving the original purpose it was built for.  To add to the confusion we are fast becoming an instant society. We don’t just want fast results any more we want instant results. The “I want it NOW!” generation.  As an example who goes to the library for information anymore just “google” the topic and you can get hundreds of thousands of links to information within seconds of pressing the enter button.

Enough said, I think you get my point here.

If your occupants are complaining there are several things that you may be able to do short of building a new elevator onto the side of your building.  First it would be a good idea to bring in a consultant to assess the integr5ty of your conveyance system and the quality of your maintenance program.  Their report should include contract speeds (the speed that the elevator was designed for in traveling the hoistway), floor to floor times, door open and door close times, and other relevant data.  The report should also include some suggestions for upgrades that can be made to “speed up” your system. Keep in mind that the contract speed can be changed but not without some major engineering involved, besides that’s never the first place to go.

After you have received and digested your report, share it with your current service contractor then sit down and discuss the possibilities. They may have some additional suggestions to add into the mix. Perhaps there are simple inexpensive changes they can make to enhance the quality of the service.  I don’t like to use the term “speed up the elevators” because it rarely happens.  What you really do is decrease the floor to floor times.  Think about it, in a 30 story building if you take 1 second off of the door opening time and 1 second off of the door close time you have potentially taken 1 full minute off the time it would take to travel all thirty floors with a stop at each. Everyone is familiar with the relativity of time. When you have to find a restroom on a long turnpike a minute seems like an hour but when you are sitting outside your boss’ office waiting to get a grinding for losing the Schmedley account time marches much more quickly!

Whether you have old or new elevators, whether they are hydraulic or traction , know that you have options all over the place. The very first being , reducing the door operation times. This can be expensive or not depending on which direction that you choose to go and the original design of your system.  Your current contractor should be able to tell you whether or not it’s possible to reduce these times with your current equipment. If not,  they may suggest that you look at the purchase of a new conventional door operator. I like to recommend a heavy duty one just because.  Many doors are adaptable to the newer linear door operators.  These can be set to open lightning fast and close at a normal speed so as not to “guillotine” passengers entering the car.  They are a bit more expensive and require more labor to change the door operating components but require a lot less maintenance and have proven their reliability over and over in the last ten years.

That’s about as far as I can go here today (retirement is keeping me busier than work did).

Next time I will discuss other methods of making the trip faster.

Until then as always, any ideas, input or comments are appreciated. Especially want to thank my regular readers fro your emails and compliments.

For now I’ll leave you with the following quotes:..

Never try to impress a woman. Because if you do she'll expect you to keep up to the standard for the rest of your life. And the pace, my friends, is devastating.
W. C. Fields

Or…

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to Somebody Else.
Will Rogers

Don’t forget to email me (elevatorernie@hotmail.com). Your suggestions and questions are always welcome.

Thank you,

Ernie

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Now that we are past the holidays and into a new year it’s time to dig out your elevator contract (if you can find it) for review. If you can’t find it just ring up your local account representative and have him/her run a copy down to you.

I can tell you the call will immediately create a suspicion in the service contractors’ mind that you are looking for cancellation terms and that may not be a bad thing.

After you have found your contract look for the following:

1.       Who wrote the contract?

If it’s a standard one written on the contractors’ paper, start looking for cancellation terms immediately.  Even if you’re satisfied with the service it’s time to get the contract written on your paper. In the elevator business one size doesn’t fit all except for the contractor. If it’s cancellable this year note the time terms, condition and date and make a note to send out the “Dear John” letter when applicable. In the meantime contact a consultant and have them write a contract specific to your equipment with terms more favorable to you. Note here that the contract STILL needs to be on your paper even if you’re happy with the service. Things can change rapidly, besides a good contractor will not worry about this kind of thing.

2.       If you still have more than one year on the contract call your service supplier and ask for a meeting detailing any increases in the contract and noting any changes they intend to make for the year.

3.       If the contract is cancellable this year you should still call your contractor in for an audit and a meeting to discuss any changes or increases that you will experience prior to the cancellation. You can let them know of your intent to cancel and rewrite the contract…or not.

4.       During the meeting ask for suggestions of upgrades that would enhance the service or extend the life of your conveyance system. Ask them how long they expect the system to last. Ask them if those upgrades will be compatible with a full modernization at a later date.

5.       Can they come up with five and ten year plans?

6.       Ask what it would take to bring your conveyance system into compliance with current codes. (fire alarms, ADA, etc.)

7.       Ask if they need an increase in the number of hours dedicated to the preventive maintenance. If so how many? How Much, and Why?

8.       Ask them what changes your organization could implement to make things go more smoothly.  Remember, this is a partnership, if you’re getting good service it’s important that they are happy too.

9.       Find out when the yearly audit is scheduled. You may want to put this ahead of any meetings in order to better understand your contractor’s recommendations.

All of this will send the signal to your service contractor that they are an important part of your team. It will also give them an opportunity to sell upgrades and possibly make servicing your conveyance system a little easier.

Finally I think you should update your paperwork file.

Get copies of the following:

1.       Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for all chemicals used and stored on your site in the course of elevator maintenance.

2.       A maintenance plan for each piece of equipment for the following year.

3.       A copy of the maintenance record for each piece of equipment for last year. (for  your files NOT the one they keep in the machine room)

4.       Make sure you have copies of all prints in the machine rooms AND in your files as well.

5.       Copies of all tests performed in the last year.

6.       Copies of state inspection reports for each elevator.

7.       Copies of photographs from the audit.

This should allow you to easily stay on top of things during the next year.

Again Happy New Year! And let’s look forward to a long uninterrupted year!

As always, any ideas, input or comments are appreciated. Especially want to thank my regular readers fro your emails and compliments.

For now I’ll leave you with the following quotes:

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself. Mark Twain

Or

I wish to thank my parents for making it all possible... and I wish to thank my children for making it necessary. Victor Borge

Don’t forget to email me (elevatorernie@hotmail.com). Your suggestions and questions are always welcome.

Thank you,

Ernie

Elevator Audits

Elevator Audits

Elevator Audits are a critical element of the service that you receive from your contractor. Many contracts have yearly supervisor audits written in however few are actually performed.  You may get a computerized statement that says someone did show up on site however it probably wasn’t for a formal audit.

Most companies do have supervisory personnel stop by occasionally to check on field employees but they do not come close to performing a full audit. To assure the integrity of your conveyance system it is important to insist on a yearly equipment audit AND accompany the auditor while he/she is evaluating the equipment. Minimal time per unit should be around ½ hour per. If you absolutely can’t make it at least send someone from your staff who can understand what they’re looking at and ask questions to gain further understanding.

The audit needs to be scheduled for a time that is convenient to you and your building occupants so as to cause minimal disruption. When scheduling the audit ask the auditor for a copy of the form he/she will use. Study the form and ask questions at the scheduling meeting. Remember there is no such thing as a dumb question. If the auditor tries to make you FEEL dumb for asking then we both know that this relationship is not a good one. (Probably especially for you).

Some of the main things to be covered in the audit:

Inside the car: Lights, emergency communications, quality of ride, noise, signal lights, condition of interior, condition of interior fixtures, cleanliness etc.

Machine room: cleanliness, does everything SEEM to be in order. Ask the function of  each major component and what things is the auditor looking for.

Inside the shaft: Look at the door equipment and make them show you the cleanliness. 70% of elevator problems come from door problems. If all of the door equipment is filthy and covered with dust you can bet that it is not being serviced properly. You can’t see if a component is not working properly is it’s covered with grease and dirt. Everything should be clean and the auditor should be able to easily demonstrate how the door equipment works so you can understand.

Is the pit clean? Dirty pits usually have little effect on how an elevator operates but they indicate how conscientious the service person is. The pit light should be operable.  A pit with oil all over the floor tells you that the technician is not spending enough time on the job to attend to all of the details.

The same goes for a dirty/dusty car top.  The car top light should be operable and there should be no trash or stored parts on the top.

There are many other things that you can observe by accompanying the auditor on the conveyance tour and any suggestions that you may come up with and can send in will be published here for all to use.

After the audit request a formal report. The report should also contain a performance report for the previous 12 months. A list of servicing, repairs, and call backs, all listed by the date which they occurred.

A close observation of all of the data may point to causes of the unforeseen problems.  Compare it to last years information if you have any.  After you have reviewed it then ask for a meeting with the auditor to discuss the report, findings, areas for improvement and possible upgrades to the system.  This gives your elevator contractor an opportunity to sell you upgrades but they will be genuine upgrades that will benefit all parties, not just for the sake of an upgrade.

I am really looking forward to your input to this post so we can possibly come up with a good simple audit sheet that everyone can use as a starter point.

As always, any ideas, input or comments are appreciated. It looks as if I’m building a regular audience for this blog and I hope to continue.

For now I’ll leave you with the following quotes:

Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully. Graham Greene

or

Making duplicate copies and computer printouts of things no one wanted even one of in the first place is giving America a new sense of purpose. Andy Rooney

Don’t forget to email me if you have questions or comments (elevatorernie@hotmail.com). Your suggestions are always welcome.

Thank you,

Ernie

Obsolescence Clauses in Elevator Contracts

Obsolescence Clauses in Elevator Contracts

Most “full coverage” elevator contracts have an obsolete parts clause in them. It’s always a good idea to be familiar with what your contract says about this. If you have a very old contract that has continued on for years there may not be a clause, in that situation the service contractor is liable for whatever it takes to repair the system, in most cases if it goes to court the decision will be in your favor.

You may want to consider a softer line if your service contractor has been doing a good job for all those years and offer to split the cost of the upgrade/repair with them after you find out what the entire cost would be. In the long run it pays to be fair and keep a good contractor in business.

When your elevator service contractor comes to you and says that you will have to pay to replace a part that was covered under the contract it can be very beneficial to examine the circumstances. First of all how old is your conveyance system? How many were built? It could be that the original equipment manufacturer has stopped producing the part rendering it obsolete to them when in reality it could be available through aftermarket suppliers. If it’s a circuit board is there a shop anywhere that repairs and exchanges them? Most elevator service companies utilize the services of these small specialty shops scattered throughout the country. If it’s a motor why can’t it be rewound at a local shop? If you’re in a hurry for it you can pay the premium portion of the rewinding cost. With some very old elevators a local machinist may be able to produce a satisfactory substitute. Some major manufacturers refuse to purchase parts from their competitors even if they are available. New elevators sell at a very low margin, elevator parts sell at a very high margin and some majors will go to great lengths to avoid enriching their rivals.

In the past some elevator service companies have been a bit too quick to label parts as obsolete in the rush to get you to upgrade either to increase their repair revenue, sell their parts, and or make the elevator easier to service. As for the last part if an upgrade makes the elevator easier to service or increases reliability, depending on the cost you may be able to make it work for you by negotiating with the service contractor.

Even if you feel that you have a good relationship with your technician it’s always best to check when he or she makes you aware of an obsolete condition. One way to avoid the problem is to ask for a list of obsolete parts and assemblies to be produced from your yearly audit. With this information you can sit down with the contractor and discuss upgrade options and costs and budget to eliminate them as you go. In the case of expensive upgrades it is always helpful to speak with a competitor or a consultant. It could be that your contractor just may not be aware of the latest aftermarket supplier’s products.

In the future I’ll discuss..

Obsolete parts

Downtime

Safety tests

What should be covered

Yearly audits with supervisory personnel

For now I will leave you with quotes from:

“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”
Mark Twain

or

“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”
George Bernard Shaw

Don’t forget to email me if you have questions or comments (elevatorernie@hotmail.com). Your suggestions are always welcome.

Thank you,

Ernie

Elevator Contracts

More on Elevator Contracts

Continuing my last comments about servicing contracts. It’s always best to call in a knowledgeable consultant to write your contract. Elevators aren’t like cars where you have millions that are alike. Each conveyance unit is a unique stand alone piece of equipment. Each was built on site, each has its own peculiarities due to usage, construction, environment etc.  A consultant can perform an initial survey and derive a specific maintenance plan, along with a pre-maintenance plan to get everything up to a high standard.  When that’s accomplished bring in the consultant yearly for audits to assure that the contractor is keeping it at that standard.

Make sure that the consultant includes certain provisions in the contract. Such as:

Cancellation terms. Most contractors want a long term (5 year) contract. You can give it to them but provide a series of one year renewals based upon the results of the yearly audits. If the service drops off so does your contractor. Extend the contract for five years only. Then it should be time to re-evaluate the scope of work in your document  as well as obtain bids to stay within market rates.

Fixed prices and capped increases. Make your contractor include fixed pricing with capped increases. Fixed pricing should be for the hourly rate fees.  Have them state regular working hours rates, overtime rates, weekend rates, holiday rates, and team repair/upgrade rates. Increases should be allowed yearly corresponding to inflation/deflation rates and wage rates based on the union wage.  I recommend 80% of the increase tied to the metals index and 20% tied to the union wage increase. Caps should be reasonable, normally 5% is a fair figure for all parties.

Exclusive rights. Most elevator contractors demand exclusive rights to work on the equipment that they service. This makes sense in that an outside contractor can perform work that could affect a function of the equipment. The incumbent contractor should not be responsible for the side effects of others work. With all of that said, however you have to be able to control excessive charges for needed upgrades or repairs.  With any project that will cost more than $3500 go out for bids. In the bids ask the proposal writer to break it down into time and material costs. Then you can compare to see if your service company is ripping you off. I recommend 4 bids. They should be close. If your service contractor falls between the high and low bid then he should be awarded the contract. Let him know whgat you’re doing to keep him from being tempted.  For anything over $5000 have the consultant write a scope of work and review the bids.

Next time I’ll discuss:

Obsolete parts

Downtime

Safety tests

What should be covered

Yearly audits with supervisory personnel

For now I will leave you with a quote from

I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
– Mark Twain

Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.
– Moses Hadas

Choose the one you like the best.

Don’t forget to email me if you have questions or comments (elevatorernie@hotmail.com). Your suggestions are always welcome.

Thank you,

Ernie