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· Chief Flunky
Field Service Engineer
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Elevators when lifting the weight of the car plus load affects the acceleration. When stopping the weight helps it stop.

When lowering and accelerating the weight helps you. When stopping it is an overhauling load…it works against you. This is the worst condition an elevator ever sees. Back in the DC days this is quadrant 2. Plus you can’t exactly not attempt to stop so the drive is often programmed for overload.

Most likely the counterweight/spring adjustment is way off or there is a power or motor issue. Have a local motor shop run a PdMA or Baker test and verify the motor is in good condition. Both online and offline testing. If nothing is found put a power monitor on it. We want to verify if there are no drive issues during a trip. If the current is good, replace the breaker. Depending on cost it may be cheaper to just replace. Also do basic drive checks. Diode test both converters and the braking transistor. If any test fails, replace drive.
 

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There is no point in offering troubleshooting suggestions to electricians. In the US and CAN, the elevator/escalator industry is independently regulated. US/CAN electricians bring the primary 3Ø to the machine room, install its fusible/lockable disconnect, terminate the line conductors, leave the disconnect in the OFF position, and that's it. Same for cab/car lighting circuits, c/w lockable disconnect.

Sometimes, we will be asked to install an auxiliary switch in the main disconnect for integrated systems, bring a ring-&-tip (or PBX) phone line to the machine room for an emerg phone in the car, dry contacts from the fire panel for elevator main & alternate floor homing, pit lighting/plug, hoistway FA devices, etc.....but we DO NOT troubleshoot faults (downstream from the disconnect), even if the fault is opening the supply fuse/brkr.
 

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There is no point in offering troubleshooting suggestions to electricians. In the US and CAN, the elevator/escalator industry is independently regulated. US/CAN electricians bring the primary 3Ø to the machine room, install its fusible/lockable disconnect, terminate the line conductors, leave the disconnect in the OFF position, and that's it. Same for cab/car lighting circuits, c/w lockable disconnect.

Sometimes, we will be asked to install an auxiliary switch in the main disconnect for integrated systems, bring a ring-&-tip (or PBX) phone line to the machine room for an emerg phone in the car, dry contacts from the fire panel for elevator main & alternate floor homing, pit lighting/plug, hoistway FA devices, etc.....but we DO NOT troubleshoot faults (downstream from the disconnect), even if the fault is opening the supply fuse/brkr.
This was what I was taught also.
I could design a complete batching system with plc and him but could not do an elevator up grade.
We could troubleshoot the freight elevator but not change anything but exact parts.
 

· Senile Member
I make all the electrons line up for their Flu shots
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37,506 Posts
This thread makes me think about something. Ok, we have heavy monitoring of Elevators in North America, but elsewhere's are new big cities with tall high-rise buildings stretching out to the sky. Even in chithole countries that I won't name but you know them if I did say. How often are there "accidents" with those elevators? How do they regulate in 3rd world places with a modern spot?
 

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499 Posts
Discussion Starter · #26 ·
Elevator breaker got replaced with a new one and has been working since. The previous one (used) must have had some 'history' that caused it to fail after a year. New three phase panels are on order to re-do the house panels and get rid of the Stab-lok. Maybe they'll show up in another year or two.
 

· Super Moderator
Florida, USA
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Elevator breaker got replaced with a new one and has been working since. The previous one (used) must have had some 'history' that caused it to fail after a year. New three phase panels are on order to re-do the house panels and get rid of the Stab-lok. Maybe they'll show up in another year or two.
+2 for coming back with the resolution!
 

· Registered
Residential, lite comm., Industrial
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Here’s a really simple way of getting it done.
if you grew up using that it would be fine

but here osha and a host of others would not allow it
for a good reason, those are very disconcerting the first time you get on it
almost everyone would get injured badly the first time they tried it as an adult

my first was when i was in my early 30s in a boiler complex in a paper mill
it did not even have enclosed cars, just a simple conveyor belt with a standing platform and a hand hold about chest high
no way to stop it in an accident and no way to live through the basement or over the top
you had to get it right on the first and every try
i was extremely nervous and watched it go by for a bit before i ever tried it
i never did like it
 

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it began on about the fifth or higher floor and only went up 1 floor
it was moving slightly faster than the one in the video
the alternative was stairs all the way down, then walk around to more stairs up the rest of the way

i was doing an electrical motor driven equipment survey at the time and needed to keep track of which floor i was on
i was not familiar enough to be sure i restarted on the correct floor if i used the stairs, no other way to know which floor, no signs
in a cpl days i was past that point far enough to find the stairs down and be able to keep track of the floors again
part of the deal with the other stairs was they did not always connect to every floor on the way up, which is why it was difficult to keep up
there were also occasional partial levels that they did not want to call a full level and number it

all in all, it was challenging just to keep up with where i was, and occasionally how to get back lol
after spending a full morning walking around and around just one level and looking to see if i missed anything
my head sometimes got turned around for a minute
a few sets of stairs going down were dead end after a cpl levels
there were somewhere around 15 or 20 levels, some had motors, some did not

the entire complex contained three complete boilers, one was gas fired, then bark fired, then black liquor fired
each was built some years after the other, gas was really small package boiler, bark was bigger, black liquor was huge

black liquor is mostly concentrated pine sap resulting from refining the paper pulp, it also has a lot of lime and some other chemicals in it
the boiler's primary purpose was to recover the lime and reuse it in the process
the boiler actually had no bottom in it so that the nearly pure lime would precipitate down to the bottom to be recovered by conveyors etc.
the liquor was sprayed into the fire chamber with high pressure injectors to make a mist that would burn

before they built that boiler, they separated the sap and lime without burning the sap and made what they called tall oil (pronounced towel, dont ask me why)
this was sold to make turpentine and such, the story went that that portion of the mill alone would earn the payroll every week (who knows for sure)

about 10 yrs ago they built a new liquor boiler and the old one was mostly abandoned or scrapped, although some few things were still used as part of the gas and bark systems

quite the novella .... eh ?
 
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