How to maintain the elevator

Most occupants never think much about Passenger Elevator controls. But as the elevator control system ages, the problems can be obvious: Long wait times for building occupants and lines in the elevator lobby during peak travel times.

Long gone are the canicule of automated attic indicators aloft the doorways of lobby-level elevators. Gone, too, are the bellmen who in fact operated elevators. And for abounding people, elevator controls central the cab ability aswell achromatize into memory.

To actuate whether elevator controls are in charge of attention, analysis delay times and elevator acceleration on a approved basis. Time how continued it takes to go from the basal attic to the top floor. Measure the time spent cat-and-mouse for an elevator during aiguille and off-peak periods. Record the times and analyze them to a baseline for the elevator, or to the manufacturer’s blueprint for that blazon of application.

Long delay times and apathetic achievement may be acquired by a malfunction as simple as a abnormal relay, or problems may be acquired by the age and all-embracing action of the elevator. While aliment can advance achievement in some cases, elevators that use old automated broadcast controls may artlessly charge a new ascendancy system. Automated relay-based controls are apathetic by today’s standards, and little can be done to advance their performance. Upgrading to new microprocessor-based controls reduces boilerplate delay time by 50 percent. When accompanying with a new drive system, the acceleration of the elevator can be added by an boilerplate of 40 percent.

Replacing the relay-based controls, although costly, will at some point become a necessity. Microprocessor ascendancy systems for elevators became the accepted for new architecture and arrangement addition about 20 years ago. Parts for earlier relay-based controls are accepting harder to find.

But increasingly elevator cars that are part of dispatch systems have no in-cab elevator controls. All destinations are entered at panels near the bank of elevators. Elevator company representatives say that the systems are simple to use after just one time — but warn that the first experience can stymie tenants or building visitors.

If system performance is already a problem, it is far better for facility executives to plan for replacement now rather than have their hand forced some time in the future.

Flexibility is part of what makes dispatching systems popular in high-rise spaces. Because the algorithms that govern car movement are programmable, dispatching systems can be custom-tailored to individual applications. Cars can be “ganged” during high-traffic periods of the day — at lunchtime, for example.