Elevator Safety Compliance

New elevator safety standard, EN81-20/50, issued in Europe in 2014
The new safety standards for elevators were issued in Europe in 2014, and similar standard is expected to be issued in Japan and China. The new safety standard requires that a control device for inspection needs to be installed in the pit under the elevator and also above the car. Stop devices are required on the pit, machine room, above the car, and the control device for inspection. Requirements in terms of quality on pushbutton switches and such are more stringent. An elevator designer did not know how to comply with the new safety standard after it becomes effective in the future. IDEC proposed a solution that included pushbuttons and control boxes based on the new elevator standard requirement, and the elevator was designed successfully while meeting the requirements of the new safety standard.

Safety level must be enhanced with enforcement of new elevator safety standard
Technical standards of elevator safety are defined in the Building Standards Act in Japan and relevant regulations in other countries. The new safety standard released in 2014, EN81-20/50, requires that stop devices be installed in the pit under the elevator and above the car, and the machine room. Quality requirements for electric and mechanical endurance in switches used on the stop devices are becoming stricter as well. The new elevator safety standard EN81-20/50 is now under a transition period as the harmonized standard of the European Lift Directive, and it is expected to be applied to the Japan Industrial Standards (JIS) and the China National Standards (GB Standards) and there is a business risk of not being able to sell elevators if they do not comply with the standards. Here, the elevator designer was facing a need to make a review of control device for inspection, starting with the selection of pushbuttons.

Comprehensive compliance to standards—from a single switch to control boxes
There were two reasons why the customer asked IDEC for help. Firstly, IDEC can meet the requirement of standards at component level as a manufacturer of pushbuttons. Secondly, IDEC has expertise of machine safety and is able to propose control boxes from the viewpoint of machine safety. The ability to propose control boxes that can satisfy the requirements of standards with combinations of emergency stop switches, pushbuttons, selector switches, and boxes, while developing/producing those individual parts and managing quality control seemed to be a major advantage to the customer.

“IDEC has knowledge on safety of machinery. We were able to consult with IDEC on the entire system from switches to control boxes. By doing so, we addressed issues one by one. It was good for us that we could design in a way to leverage the strength of our company’s elevators.”

Met customers’ request in a flexible manner, complying with safety standard
As the customer adopted not only switches but whole proposal including control boxes, product operability and reliability were improved while securing safety by meeting the standards. Dust proof FB Series is made of lightweight resin, and AGA/AGS Series made of stainless steel/aluminum die cast can be used in harsh environment. In addition to such lineup where control boxes are selectable according to the operating environment, these products were installed to meet the new elevator safety standards. This brought about a sense of assurance to the customer in the process of business development, because now that the customer is prepared for complete transition to the new elevator safety standards due in future.

The customer continues to count on the wide-ranging product lineup of IDEC. The ability of flexible customization, when selecting safety products and LED illumination units that meet various elevator-related standards, rules, etc. in securing safety and improve performance of elevators is why customers choose IDEC.