A busy year is reported on, and schedules are announced.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) held its annual Clearwater Beach, Florida, Code Week on January 9-12. As usual, the Sheraton Sand Key Resort hosted many elevator professionals, both members of the society and guests to the proceedings. ASME A17 Standards Committee and associated code committees, including the QEI, Mechanical Design, Electrical, Inspections, New Technology, International Standards and Platform Lifts committees, met throughout the week.
Standards Committee
Chairman Hank E. Peelle, III presided over the well-attended Standards Committee meeting on January 11, during which a wide range of topics were addressed: maintenance, hoistways, inspections, doors, door interlocks and more. Inquiries, requests for interpretation and technical revisions were taken care of first. These involved many editorial changes made to the questions and responses as meeting procedure was discussed, examined and reaffirmed. ASME Staff Secretary Geraldine Burdeshaw was on hand to answer many such questions that arose.
Individual committee reports were then given. David McColl of Otis in Canada announced that the 2016 edition of the ASME A17.1/CSA B44 Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators was on schedule to be republished soon and available with several corrections. He stated the A17.8/B44.8 Standard for Wind Turbine Tower Elevators had also recently been published and made available.
Louis Bialy, formerly of Otis, and consultant Dave Turner then spoke on dealings with the International Organization of Standardization (ISO). Bialy said ISO Working Group (WG) 4 is renumbering its descriptive standards to ISO 8100-1, 2 and 3, and the 14798 Risk Assessment standard is being updated. Additionally, standard 2259 parts 3 and 4 on global conformity assessment bodies is being revised. Turner then explained WG 5 has updated its 14799-1 comparison of worldwide escalator and moving-walk safety standards. Bialy then noted that WG 6 has updated seismic requirements, taking into account A17 and Japanese requirements. Additionally, 4190-1 is being updated for machine-room-less elevators, and Emergency Situation Documents are being developed.
Vincent Robibero of Schindler continued with the ISO updates: WG 8 has been meeting with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) to harmonize requirements and will be updating informative tables (used to show comparisons of differences and similarities) throughout the year.
It was agreed that a task group to find nominees for ASME awards should be established. The following volunteered for it: Bob Shepherd (chair), Dean McLellan and Jim Coaker. Finally, Burdeshaw announced that Spanish translation efforts are being ramped up for work on A17.1.
US TAG to ISO TC 178
The following day saw a morning meeting of the US TAG to ISO TC 178, chaired by Bialy. He stated ANSI 8100-30 has been revised by WG 6, including MRL elevators, to address special requirements for certain countries and is being harmonized with NEII-1. Also, WG 6’s Dimensional Standards, TR 16765: Lifts for Firefighters and the report on the “Use of Elevators for Emergencies” are all being updated. Robibero added that WG 8 approved Programmable Electronic Systems in Safety Related Applications for Lifts and Escalators (PESSRAL and PESSRAE) to be published. Additionally, standards on electromagnetic compatibility were completed and may be included in harmonized ISO/European Standards material.
The next ASME Code Week will begin on May 15 in Phoenix, Arizona, at the Embassy Suites. Another will begin October 2 in Toronto, with January 8 kicking off the first 2018 Code Week, again in Clearwater Beach.
Get more of Elevator World. Sign up for our free e-newsletter.
