The December 1, 2013 deadline to have all non-conforming elevator cars upgraded with car top safety railings is almost here. Building owners, who have not already contracted with an elevator company to do the work, will probably find themselves scrambling to find a contractor who can actually fit the work into their schedule. These owners […]
Ontario Elevator Strike – A Balanced Perspective
The unionised mechanics in the Ontario Elevator market have been on strike since the beginning of May 2013. Outside of biased articles on either side of the dispute, I have not read much that would seem balanced and helpful for the group most affected – the clients. I would like to do my best to […]
Wind Turbine Tower Lifts
The higher wind turbines have specialty man lifts in the towers to take workers and maintenance staff up to the top. The province of Ontario is an interesting jurisdiction for the licensing and maintenance of the man-lifts installed in these wind turbine towers. TSSA (Technical Standards and Safety Authority) tightly regulates these devices and their […]
How long should my Elevator Maintenance Mechanic be here?
Is maintenance time on site a good measurement of the quality of elevator maintenance? I would answer NO to that question since there are much better things to monitor than just the time on site. Certainly if your elevator mechanic is in-and-out of your building inside of 5 or 10 minutes, it is not possible […]
The TSSA Elevator Inspector has been here. What should I do?
In the Province of Ontario, the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) is responsible for regulating the safety of elevating devices under the Technical Standards & Safety Act 2000. Part of their due diligence is periodic inspections of all regulated elevating devices based on a “risk-based” cycle. When a TSSA Elevator Inspector finishes their inspection […]
How good is your Elevator Maintenance contractor?
Most building owners with elevators would be very surprised to learn that the Technical Standard Safety Authority (TSSA), who oversees all elevating devices in Ontario, provides a detailed rating of all elevator contractors as they compare to the industry average. These stats are only provided directly to the elevator contractor and were most recently released […]
Machine Room Guarding for Elevators – An Overview
Machine room guarding is a complicated an often misunderstood topic. There are multiple pieces of overlapping and seemingly conflicting pieces of legislation regarding elevator machine room guarding. The enforcement and interpretation of this legislation also falls under different jurisdictions. Machine room guarding is intended to protect the workers, who do work in the elevator machine […]
Machine-Room-Less Elevators (MRLs) – Some Lesser Known Facts
Is an MRL the best choice for my building? The answer depends on a lot of factors. Here are some of the facts: MRLs take up less space in a building since no machine room is required MRLs consume 30% to 80% less power while running than most other types of elevator systems MRLs have […]
Changes to Annual Firefighters’ Emergency Operation (FEO) Testing
The requirements for building owners with elevators equipped with Firefighters’ Emergency Operation (FEO) are changing on May 1, 2012. The changes are not major, but prudent building owners will ensure that they are in compliance and that their firefighters elevators are being tested regularly. This article is a summary of the new requirements with links […]
Hints and Tips for Elevator Users
We get a lot of service calls on elevators where the elevator user could have been better served if they had a bit more knowledge about the best ways to use an elevator. The sections below try to convey some of this knowledge from an elevator insider to the elevator riders: Hints for Elevator Use […]
