A Tool of the Trade

I’m writing this only a few days after returning from a weeklong trip to Istanbul, where we are in the process of launching ELEVATOR WORLD Turkey. It was a privilege to meet with our Managing Director Bülent Yılmaz, visit our office on the Asian side of Istanbul, talk with our office accountant Dilek Yurtseven, and work for four days with our Managing Editor Durdane Abdal as she reported on the Asansör Expo. We (T.Bruce MacKinnon, Brad O’Guynn and I) went to Turkey to cover the expo, as we have every other year for 20 years, but also to initiate a new regional bimonthly magazine to better cover the Turkish industry and its surrounding countries.

Turkey is a bridge between the Middle East and Europe, which is why we have cultivated a strong relationship and have a fully staffed branch there. Visitors from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia and other countries who want to meet with their peers in the industry from Europe can easily visit in Turkey and have no problems obtaining visas. Istanbul has been a world capital since 4 BC, and today, the ancient and modern stand side by side. It is a vibrant industry with strong manufacturing and a sky filled with cranes. What had been missing was a strong, independent magazine that welcomes all to participate. My father created a term he used to describe a trade magazine: “magarena” – a gathering place for people to present their wares, exchange their views, inform on standards, brag about new projects and learn the techniques necessary for doing business. To me, it is a “tool of the trade” – just as necessary as sales samples, architectural drawings or maintenance tools.

This issue of EW is full of tools of the trade, its focus being Tools and Testing Equipment. This subject brought a terrific response with six articles on the topic. Several tools were brought to the fore – KONE Spares’ Escalator Combplate Impact Fixture Test Kit, Texacone’s array of tools for hydraulic and traction elevators and Dale Tolar’s Loaded Gap/Comb Impact Tool. TÜV SÜD’s Alfons Petry discussed the continued merits of the ADIASYSTEM, the venerable “alternative testing” toolkit that has been the definitive advanced load-testing method since 1992 and is now accepted in North America in the 2013 version of the ASME A17.1/CSA B44 harmonized code. Kevin Heling of Wurtec explores the Henning Mobile

Weight Watcher System in the article A New Way to Weigh. He is a fan of it when used properly. Lastly, in Systems Analysis and Architecture Methodologies to Drive Innovative Electrical Systems, four Otis engineers discuss how changing customer needs affect the architecture of the elevator electrical control system.

It is spring in our home city of Mobile, Alabama, and in addition to flowers busting out all over, our staff and correspondents are traveling to various events around the world. In this issue, we cover the IEE Expo in Dhaka,the first of its kind there; the third International Lift Expo Korea, a growing event that focuses on safety and education; AEM in Buenos Aires, an intense

one-day meeting between members of the Brazilian and Argentinean industry; the CIBSE Annual Review; and the EESF Annual General Membership Meeting, where change was the theme in personnel and program. The June issue will be just as full of events we are covering now, with the National Elevator Industry, Inc.’s (NEII®) Annual General Meeting (AGM), the Elevator Conference of New York Supplier Showcase, MADE in Italy and Asansör Istanbul all coming up.

Other features this month include the Impact of EN 81-20 and EN 81-50 Standardsby Esfandiar Gharibaan that discusses the long process of revision, beginning in 1998. Our cover article is the Budapest Metro Line Four by Wittur Italia’s Carlo Ferrari.

We try to report on the news and not become too much a part of it, but this month, it’s hard not to brag about the many things Elevator World, Inc. is doing: adding John Koshak to our board and preparing for our own AGM; upgrading our software and our new bookstore with amazing results to come; and preparing all-new versions of the bestselling books Elevators 101, The 2015 Elevator Industry Field Employees’ Safety Handbook and The Vertical Transportation Industry Profile 2014. New books on the horizon are Safety in Escalators by Anthony Andon and Fartash Razmjoo and Education Focus Volume II edited by Dr. Albert So.

Editing, revising, formatting and otherwise developing books is what we do in between the deadlines for EW, EW India and, now, EW Turkey. Just like the rest of the industry, we are very busy building new “tools of the trade” for our readers.