Elevators in an Educational Environment

It's pretty common for a large university to have a more diverse group of buildings than anyplace else in town. That means, when it comes to tackling an elevator issue, the university's facilities department often doesn't have someone they can consult in a facility just down the road that's had similar experiences. 

At a number of Big Ten universities, the usual solution was to call someone at another Big Ten university. A few years ago, that repeated collaboration led to the idea of a group that could share experience and education among those with elevator responsibilielelies at universities. That group formally organized in 2006 as Elevator U. In addition to university representatives, the group also has members that are elevator manufacturers, contractors, consultants and vendors. The organization holds an annual conference that focuses on elevators in university settings. This year's conference will be hosted by Michigan State University from June 18-21.

In addition to sharing information and ideas with peers that work in similar environments, the organization focuses on teaching safety to students, both college and younger, says Elevator U board of directors president Martin Culp, elevator supervisor, department of operations and maintenance — contracts, University of Maryland.

At Maryland and other universities, working on elevators doesn't just mean their mechanical aspects. College students can, of course, be a bit hard on their surroundings, so certain measures have to be taken to combat that, says Culp.

"It goes in spurts," says Culp. "We'll get a period when they seem to be a little more destructive than normal. What we've done in most of the dorms is put vandal-resistant buttons in the elevators, because we've had trouble with them using cigarette lighters to melt the plastic on the buttons."

When it comes to mechanical maintenance, Maryland's service contracts have a wide range of requirements for the length of time in the field and experience working with different kinds of equipment. With a wide range of brands and types of  passenger elevator  requirements ranging from dormitories to office buildings, the maintenance demands vary widely.

And, for the most part, it runs pretty smoothly — with the occasional exception.

"After a football game, we may get trapped calls where they've loaded 15 or 20 people in an elevator," Culp says. "Every once in a while we get those, but not on a frequent basis. We pretty much know when to expect problems."

key words of China 's elevator industry

2015, this may opened a new era for elevator companies.Challenges and opportunities coexist, we try to summarize this unusual year through a set of "keywords".

Inflection point

China's economy, especially the real estate industry under the depth adjustment, the turning point of China's elevator market really come.Unsurprisingly, in 2015 China's elevator market orders year-on-year decline.This is the the first inflection point since 2000,for elevator business.No matter how much reduction, it reflects that the best days of selling elevator has ended.Relevant agencies estimated that the first three quarters of 2015, China's real estate investment contribution to GDP has dropped to 0.04 percentage points.

Differentiation

Differentiation in 2015 began to behave very obvious, even those unwilling to leave the enterprise to use all the stops.Elevator enterprises rely mainly on product sales to obtain profits.Orders therefore become a measure of an enterprise is important or even the only indicator.And with the narrowing of the market rising channel, all enterprises can not share the only remaining sales bonus.All companies are beginning to face hard days, including those well-known brands.

Price reduction

Together with the decline in market demand, as well as product prices.The increasingly fierce competition, forcing every enterprise have to use all means to tap their own advantages.In order to expand or keep the market share, price war has become inevitable.In 2015, this "price war" more frequent appearances.

Values

To develop into what kind of business enterprise?n this process, what kind of guidelines and norms enterprises and practitioners had to follow ?This all should be the scope of corporate values.In today's complex real estate and elevator market environment, it is increasingly difficult for companies to meet performance expectations while meeting different regional rules.However, all enterprises should be in the process of production and management together to build a good business climate, protect the environment, to ensure product safety and social responsibility, to create a healthy industrial form.

Aftermarket

From manufacturing enterprises to manufacturing service-oriented enterprises is the fundamental change, "after the market" sooner or later become an important source of profit for the elevator business.In fact, on this transformation, part of the elevator company has already begun action.After using the market to get users, dig more value from the unit users with services, outsourcing, etc.,However, although the action has long been started, but the effect is unsatisfactory.This is mainly subject to market growth stage, the characteristics of the environment.

The eastern and Western culture in the elevator

20 years ago, a friend from Beijing went to Hongkong. After his return and he talked about his feelings:Hongkong is just like Beijing,has a lot small alley, but Hongkong's alleys are vertical.Vertical alley up and down, all by the elevator. Lift and democracy are the same as the good stuff, not only practical, but also can observe the vicissitudes of life.

Here is a story of taking elevator in France.Just arrived in France, a friend told me about notes of taking passenger elevator .If you are not alone in the elevator, do not forget to let the ladies go first.After the ladies went out,the gentleman would like to let each other go first,and said: "APRESVOUS"(After you).

Some time ago the "Wall Street journal" published Chinese Yuan Li’s article, talking about taking the elevator in New York.She was amazed that  no one in the elevator push the close door button,instead a lot of people will press the key to keep the door open.

A few years later, when the lady back to Beijing, found that the level of Beijing has a lot less alley, the vertical alley has been comparable with Hongkong.She is in Beijing on the first day because in the elevator just stood aside, not to close the door key and lynched.Although the same ladder that person did not say anything, but his eyes and press the action has been the key to his dissatisfaction with the very clear.She soon discovered that in Beijing, almost everyone will press the door close button after come into the elevator .One morning, when she was in the habit of opening the door keys and a young man into the elevator, and he came up and politely.But after that he just keep his hand on the key bottom.Every time after someone comes in,he press the closing bottom to close the elevator door.He didn't mean to, because he seemed to repeat as a habit.For him, there was nothing more important than saving for a few seconds.

Time is money, we can understand that.The above example is the elevator inside the action, if someone press the elevator button, waiting for you on the elevator, what would you do?Generally speaking, most people see the elevator was waiting for him, will do like to speed up the trot, not to delay the time of others.Not just case it will save time,also to show his best try.If he did not try to run,it will be regarded as a rude behavior.

So, attitude means everything.　

　　

　

How to Escape a Stranded Elevator

There are few situations worse than being trapped in an elevator to elevate the pulse of anyone afraid of heights, confined spaces, or both. If you should ever find yourself lodged unfortunately between floors (or are currently reading this inside a stuck elevator), here is just about everything you should do to ensure a speedy escape. The thing to keep in mind is that, unless you find yourself in a life-or-death situation, the best thing to do is to call for help and wait for it. Many of your attempts to escape can actually lead you to more danger.

To learn how to escape a stranded elevator as safely as you can, please see below.

Step 1. Stay calm

As soon as you realize you're stranded, you may feel a natural urge to panic. However, you have to tell yourself to put mind over matter, and to stay as calm as possible. If you start panicking, your body will start to feel the effects, and you'll only be making it more difficult for yourself to think clearly.Take a deep breath and relax your body.

Step 2. Find a light source if the lights are out.

If the elevator is dark, you can create some light by using a key chain flash light or opening your cell phone . Try your best not to keep the device on for so long that battery power is drained. Creating light will help you see the buttons and get a better sense of your situation.

Step 3. Press the call button.

If it's dark, use the light source to find the call button. Then, press the call button to find help . This will alert maintenance personnel there is a problem with the elevator. This is the quickest and best way to get help.

Step 4. If there's no answer, try calling for help.

If there is no response to pressing the call button, check your cell phone for reception. If you have any reception, call your local emergency services number .

Step 5. Press the "door open" button.

Sometimes, this button can just get jammed, and if you press it, it'll open the elevator right up. You may be laughing, but you'd be surprised by how many people call for help to escape a stranded elevator only to find that they just have to press the "door open" button again.

Step 6. If you can't call for help, try to get the attention of the people outside the elevator.

If you've tried the call button or tried calling for help and have gotten no answer, then your next bet can be to try to shout or call for help. You can try to bang on the door of the elevator with shoes or other objects and yell to alert passersby. Depending on the sound transmittance of the door, tapping firmly with a key on the door may make a loud sound throughout the elevator shaft. Shouting can help alert people who are outside the elevator to your situation, but you should know that shouting or yelling excessively can also cause you to panic more, so make sure you try to stay reasonably calm when you are calling for help.

Step 7. Wait it out.

If you are not in an extreme life-or-death situation, just wait it out. In a best case scenario, people will notice the elevator is not working in minutes and you'll be out in no time. People frequently use the elevator and people in the building, especially building personnel, should quickly notice that something is off. Though shouting for help can also help, if it hasn't gotten you anywhere after a while, it's better to stop and wait than to use all of your energy.

Improve elevator safety performance

Quality-inspection authorities have called for the training of more elevator maintenance professionals and urged greater public awareness of elevator safety issues, after a string of deadly accidents that involved malfunctioning equipment.

The rapid increase in the number of elevators has posed a great challenge to their maintenance, said Chen Gang, deputy head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Chen made the remarks on Monday at the start of a week-long program on promoting elevator and escalator safety.

The number of elevators and escalators in China is increasing 20 percent annually, reaching 2.45 million by the end of 2012, he said.

The increase made China first in the world in the number of elevators and escalators in use, their production and growth, he said.

But the country currently faces a shortage of such personnel, and the administration is under pressure to resolve the problem after a string of elevator accidents that have killed passengers.

In one such case that shocked the country, a 24-year-old nursing intern in Shenzhen was decapitated in May while stepping out of an elevator that suddenly malfunctioned, stopped between floors and then moved sharply up and down. Investigations showed the elevator's maintenance workers had not followed safety management regulations.

Chen said the incidence of accidents in China is similar to that in developed economies. In 2012, the rate of accidents was 0.15 per 10,000 machines, with a death rate of 0.11 per 10,000 machines.

But he also said that the safety of elevators is an issue that deserves attention.

"The dramatic increase in elevators in use, the aging of equipment and the heavy load on elevators and escalators threaten their safe operation," he said.

Cao Yiding, an official of the administration in charge of elevator safety inspection, said regulations stipulate that an elevator should be checked every 15 days, but not all elevators are regularly maintained.

"It is because of the rapid increase (in elevators) and the lack of time to train more professional maintenance workers," Cao said, adding that the lack of maintenance was behind most elevator problems.

Fan Kun, director of a special equipment testing institution responsible for examining all elevators and escalators in Beijing's Chaoyang district, said that after receiving reports submitted by companies that maintain the elevators, the institution "often found in the follow-up examination that the condition of the elevator differed from what they said in the report".

"Sometimes, some maintenance workers with a heavy workload would just skip some tests and fill in fake results," he said.

He said that the district has more than 40,000 elevators and escalators, and the number has been increasing at a rate of more than 2,000 annually, creating huge workloads for maintenance companies.

"We usually have to work extra hours and on weekends to finish the inspections," he said.

Cao, the elevator safety inspection official, said that the public's reluctance to pay for elevator maintenance is another important reason for the lack of maintenance.

"On many occasions, residents in a building refuse to pay for the maintenance of elevators, which are for public use, so the company maintaining the building cannot collect enough money to hire maintenance companies to do the job."

Li Zhiqiang, manager of the existing installations department of Schindler China's Beijing Branch, said the public is not fully aware of the importance of maintenance in keeping the machines safe.

"People don't pay attention to the safety of the elevators until something goes wrong," he said.

"Sixty percent of households in a residential community need to sign an agreement before they can use their maintenance fund to fix the elevator that needs an overhaul badly. But they often fail to come to an agreement, letting the elevator age and become unreliable."

Elevator accident analysis

Recent years, in the elevator wounding death incident,  80% of the accident is related to the elevator door.And mostly because the residents using the door not correctly.We are going to discuss some accident and analysis the wrong operation.

Elevator doors are fitted with anti pinch device,people often use items to block the door while moving stuffs.In fact, the elevator door has 10~20 seconds interval, after repeated shutdown, the elevator will start the protection design.Therefore, the correct way is to press the button, and don't block the door.When the elevator door is closing, passengers should not use their hands, feet, etc. to stop the door.

Case :May 2013, a building in Luohu District, Shenzhen, a hospital intern nurse at the head of the elevator ride 1 was caught, the elevator directly to the negative first floor, the woman was killed on the spot.

There is a blind spot in the elevator door, which can not distinguish thing too small. Daily used elevator, has two ray induction device is arranged on the door, when there are objects blocking the radiation, the door will automatically bounce.But no matter what kind of elevator, it will have a range of induction blind spot, if the foreign body is just in the blind spot, there is the danger of being caught.

Case:Elevator can not detect a dog ultra fine rope.When the elevator door opened, people did not enter while the puppy is advanced, because the elevator can not detect a barrier, the door automatically closed lift start.As the results ,people get injured case has the dog rope in hand,and the dog also suffered misfortune.

Grilling the door will easily lead to accidents.There is a big gap between the car body and the floor, if people inside the elevator door forcibly opens the door ,it will likely case fall from the gap.If the elevator does not just stop at the station, but stopped between the two floors. In this situation forced open the door out, not only likely to fall down,but also if the elevator suddenly start running, it is prone to accidents.

Case:In Zunyi City,Guizhou Province, a 21 year old girl took a elevator in Shishan Hotel,While the elevator stopped running, She forcibly opens the elevator door. As the results she fell into the elevator shaft 10 meters deep, died on the spot.

Do not lean on the elevator door to prevent falling into the elevator shaft.While waiting for the elevator some people always repeatedly press the upward or downward button, and also there are people like to leaned on the door for rest, some even will punch the elevator door.But the fact is repeatedly pressing the button may cause the elevator stop at wrong position and the button may stop working.Beside leaned on the door, punching the door may affect the floor door opening system.

Case:May 29, 2007, In Chenzhou City, a elevator accident occurred in the hotel.According to the video, a female employee's turned back to lean on the the elevator door after pushing the elevator switch call ladder with right hand (the door is closed). Just at the moment  the elevator door automatically opened.And the staff fell into the shaft and died.

Do not get in or out the elevator before the elevator reach the right position.Due to the operating life and no regular maintenance or other reasons, some of the elevator operation will appear in different conditions.Therefore, when taking the elevator and the elevator door opened, be sure to determine the car to reach and accurate positioning and then import and export.

Case:In June 24, 2000, Hemou in Zigong Tianxiang Hotel was waiting for the elevator on the first floor.The elevator door opened, he took the lead get into the elevator. But the car has not arrived for some reason and he fell into the shaft.

Home Elevator Operation Specifications

Home elevator is used in the villa in the most up and down transport, so how do we use them safely?Here we talk about the home elevator safety operation procedures:

（1）The home elevator shall be run on trial before the formal use.Check if there is any strange sound or smell,and make sure  ventilation and lighting is good.

（2）Clean the car and car door and door sill chute, ensure the home elevator door opening and closing regularly.

（3）When the elevator door open, before get into the elevator, we must first observe to ensure the elevator car is in the corresponding position of floor.Rush into the elevator car may cause elevator accident fall if the elevator car is not in the level position.

（4）Home elevator is strictly prohibited overload operation, prohibit transporting over large, over long or unknown weight items.

（5）Confirm whether the landing door, car door is in the closed state. In the normal operation of the elevator, landing doors and car doors should be in a closed state. if found the elevator door is not closed while running, that the elevator is having a fault,.Do not get into the elevator,  prevent the occurrence of shear.

（6）Do not use the triangle key to open the landing door,while the elevator is on running.

（7）Emergency alarm device should be started when faults occur in the elevator operation.Elevator managers should immediately cut off the power supply for household use, timely notification to the elevator maintenance unit for processing.

（8）Operation rules for the rescue of the trapped people in the home elevator:Home elevator administrators or rescue workers should get in touch with the trapped, and make the trapped remains calm, waiting for rescue.The trapped person should not extend their body out the car .Accurately determine the car position, to ensure the reliability of the door closed;Open the car door and the landing door with the triangle key , evacuate the passengers;Close the door, fill in the rescue record and file, notify the elevator maintenance unit for processing.

（9）After the elevator door unlocked by triangle key, it is required to check whether the emergency unlocking device is reliable to reset and prevent the lock from locking.

（10）In case of a fire, it is forbidden to use the elevator to escape.Household elevator management personnel should immediately press the "fire switch", make the home elevator switched into fir-mode running . When the home elevator reached the station,it should immediately divert passengers leave the car.After the elevator managers cut off the power supply of the home elevator, use Insulated fire extinguisher to extinguish the fire.

（11）It is prohibited to take the elevator to escape during an earthquake.Should try to make the home lift stop at the nearest station as soon as possible,and evacuate passengers immediately.Then Elevator management should immediately cut off the power supply.After the earthquake stopped, should ask the elevator maintenance personnel to strictly check or repair the elevator before re put it into operation.

 （10）When the water intake in the elevator shaft,home elevator managers should make the elevator stop at the station above the water and immediately cut off the power supply for household elevator;If the water has already wet the car , it should immediately suspended and cut off the power no matter which floor the car stop at.

  

New Standard for Elevator Inspection

September 11^th,reporter of Chongqing Morning News informed from the Municipal Quality Supervision Bureau that "Home elevator inspection rules", "elevator repair classification and inspection rules" has passed the expert group review, entered the final approval stage.　

These two standards will be more standardized elevator inspection process, to ensure the safety of the public.

"Home elevator inspection rules" will be the first national standard for household elevator inspection."Elevator repair classification and inspection rules" is to further regulate the elevator renovation, major repairs ,maintenance and other operations.It will provide reliable technical basis for the supervision and inspection of special equipment inspection and testing institutions.

Home elevator

"Home elevator inspection rules" is drafted by the Chongqing Special Equipment Institute.So why do you want to develop a standard for the home elevator?Expert from Chongqing Special Equipment Institute explained for us.With the rapid economic development, people living conditions are getting better and better.Some people moved into houses, villas and other high-floor  residential, so does home lift came into being.

At present, the methods of inspection of home elevator is Commission inspection and mainly just for the installation and acceptance.The relevant national standard of domestic elevator only provides the technical requirements for the design, manufacture, installation and other aspects of the domestic elevator, but does not involve the corresponding testing methods.

Cause the lack of corresponding inspection procedures,home elevator acceptance inspection in the inspection items has been determined by the user of commission or the inspection agency consultation,so that the Commission inspection of the project is too arbitrary and produced a lot of problems.

At the same time, because of the home elevator is not in the scope of the elevator compulsory inspection, some of home using elevator have not inspected onece for many years,this bring serious security risks.

"Home elevator inspection rules" will regulate the entrusted inspection household elevator in our city, inappropriate behavior constraints of related parties, improve the city's household elevator inspection quality, prevent and reduce household elevator safety accidents, ensure passenger safety.

There are at least 60 inspection items for one home elevator

"Home elevator inspection rules" clearly stipulates that the home elevator is installed in a private house,and use only for one single family members.It can also be installed in a public building with many families in ,but it can only be reserved for one specific family.

Compared with the passenger elevator used in public places, home elevator is a private property.It is specific with in the rated speed, rated load, car travel, driving mode, open the door, the use of environment, supervision and management.

The new standard provisions of the installation and inspection conditions of the household elevator, the contents and methods of inspection, inspection reports and conclusions.The inspection project is divided into below test items: technical information, computer and related equipment, wells and related equipment, car and counterweight, suspension and rotating parts, car door and landing door, additional item for machineroomless home elevator, additional item for hydraulic lift home elevator.

According to the standard requirements, a home elevator at least need to go through 60 test items.For example,There should not be any gap greater than 6 mm between the car door and the landing door . While using the glass door, requires measures to prevent children’s hand from being dragged .

At the same time, the standard requires overload protection device for home elevator. When the load go over more than 110% of the capacity,it should stop normal running, and the car need to have a warning signal.