Passenger & Goods Lifts

Passenger and goods lifts move people and goods between floors. A lift comprises the drive machine and brake, the controller, suspension (steel ropes or coated belts), car and counterweight, guide rails, landing and car doors with their operators and interlocks, safety gear and overspeed governor, buffers in the pit, the car interior and fixtures, emergency communication, and interfaces to fire systems. In apartment buildings the lifts are usually the largest single sinking fund item; in offices they shape tenant experience every day.

Lifts are modernised in stages rather than replaced: controls, drives and door operators at 15 to 20 years; car interiors when the building is refurbished; machines, ropes, guides and safety gear at 25 to 35 years. Each stage brings the components it touches up to the current standard, which often adds work such as unintended car movement protection or accessibility features.

What shortens life:

• Heavy traffic, especially goods and hospital lifts and lifts serving car parks.
• Door abuse: doors forced, struck by trolleys and held open.
• Water in the pit from groundwater or failed sumps, corroding buffers, rails and safety gear.
• Hot, dusty machine rooms that age electronics.
• Call-out-only maintenance instead of planned preventive maintenance.

Controller and drive obsolescence

Controllers and drives are the usual trigger for modernisation. When the manufacturer stops making parts and the programming tools are proprietary, a single board failure can stop a lift for weeks. Lifts from the 1980s to early 2000s are commonly in this position now.

Door faults

Doors cause most breakdowns and many injuries. Operators, tracks, rollers, gibs and interlocks wear; doors are struck by trolleys and forced by users; sensors that stop doors closing on people fail or are misaligned. Interlocks that let a landing door open without the car present are a fall hazard.

Rope and sheave wear

Steel ropes wear and develop broken wires, rouge (red dust from internal wear) and diameter loss; sheave grooves wear unevenly, which accelerates rope wear and causes slippage. Ropes are replaced on measured condition.

Brake and unintended movement

Brakes wear and their linings contaminate; a failed brake can let a car move with doors open. Newer standards require protection against unintended car movement, and modernising the controls usually brings this requirement with it.

Levelling faults

Cars that stop above or below the floor create trip hazards, a common cause of injury to elderly passengers and a sign of drive, brake or hydraulic valve problems.

Hydraulic cylinder failure

Buried hydraulic cylinders corrode from outside where groundwater reaches them; seals leak oil into the ground. Older single-bottom cylinders can fail suddenly. Oil leaks are an environmental issue, and replacing a buried cylinder means excavating the pit.

Emergency communication failure

Trapped passengers must be able to call for help. Lift phones on copper lines stop working as networks are retired; batteries fail; phones are disconnected after maintenance.

Fire service and evacuation functions

Fire service recall and fire-fighter control must work with the fire alarm and protected power supply. Interfaces broken by fire panel or lift upgrades leave lifts that do not home or cannot be used by fire-fighters.

On site

• Controller nameplate and era in the machine room or control cabinet.
• Doors: damage, slow or jerky operation, gaps, sensors.
• Levelling at each floor; trip edges.
• Ride quality: vibration, noise, jerking at starts and stops.
• Emergency phone: test call, line type, signage.
• Pit: water, oil, debris.
• Machine room: temperature, oil leaks, housekeeping, rope condition visible at the machine.

In the records

• Call-out and breakdown history per lift.
• Entrapment records.
• Maintenance contract and scope.
• Modernisation history and recommendations.
• Registration and periodic inspection certificates.
• Rope test results.

• Fixtures: worn buttons, failed indicators and missing audio announcements, which show the age of the controls and accessibility gaps.

Findings are graded by what they demand: safety (can hurt someone now), failure (failed and damaging the building), condition (distress present and progressing), lifecycle (renewal due on age and exposure), deadline (a regulator or ordinance sets the date), check (investigate before sizing works) and nil (cosmetic or stable).

An independent lift consultant leads, with the maintenance contractor present; independence matters because the contractor may also bid for the modernisation.

• Records review: breakdowns and entrapments per lift over two to three years, maintenance scope and hours, modernisation history, inspection certificates.
• Machine room or control cabinet inspection: controller, drive, machine, brake, governor, ropes and sheaves.
• Shaft and pit inspection from the car top and pit: guides, doors, interlocks, counterweight, buffers, water and oil.
• Performance testing: door times, levelling accuracy, ride quality, waiting times at peak.
• Safety testing as the standard requires: safety gear, governor, buffers, brake, unintended movement protection.
• Parts support: written advice from the manufacturer on controller and drive support.
• Code gap review: accessibility, fire service functions, communications and unintended movement against current standards.

The report should give a staged modernisation scope and timing per lift, safety defects, and whether the maintenance contract is adequate.

• Controls and drive modernisation, usually with door operators and fixtures, which cures most reliability problems and brings in regenerative drives and unintended movement protection.
• Door package: new operators, tracks, rollers, interlocks and full-height light curtains.
• Rope replacement with sheave regrooving or replacement.
• Machine replacement with gearless machines at the end of geared machine life.
• Hydraulic cylinder replacement with protected or holeless designs, or conversion to traction.
• Car interior refurbishment, with accessible controls and audio and braille indicators.
• Emergency communication upgrade to digital or cellular with battery backup.
• Maintenance contract with defined preventive scope, response times and parts support.
• Staggered programmes in multi-lift buildings so one lift is always in service.

Maintenance contracts recur. Modernisation is priced per lift per stage, and is usually programmed lift by lift. Builders' work (machine room alterations, electrical supply, fire interfaces, pit works) adds to each stage. Rope replacement recurs on condition. Hydraulic cylinder replacement includes excavation. Temporary loss of service in single-lift buildings can require temporary arrangements for residents with limited mobility.

Modernisation stages are lifecycle; safety items and inspections are code compliance; ropes and repairs are repairs and maintenance; communication migration carries a deadline where lines are being retired.

• Australia. Lifts are registered plant under state work health and safety regulations, with periodic inspection in some states; the AS 1735 series, now adopting the ISO 8100 and EN 81 based standards, governs design and modernisation; the Disability (Access to Premises — Buildings) Standards 2010 set accessibility for new and upgraded lifts.
• United Kingdom. The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 require thorough examination of passenger lifts at least every six months; BS EN 81-20 and 81-50 govern new lifts and modernisation, including unintended car movement protection; BS EN 81-80 guides improving existing lifts; BS EN 81-28 covers remote alarms; fire-fighting lifts follow BS EN 81-72.
• United States. ASME A17.1 governs new lifts and A17.3 existing lifts, with annual inspections and periodic load tests set by state and city elevator authorities; the 2010 ADA Standards set accessibility; fire service recall and fire-fighter operation are required.

• Breakdown, call-out and entrapment records per lift.
• Maintenance contract and scope.
• Registration and periodic inspection certificates.
• Modernisation history and outstanding recommendations.
• Manufacturer parts support advice for controllers and drives.
• Rope and safety test results.
• Emergency phone line details and test records.
• Sinking fund forecast for the lifts in strata buildings.