Companies in Sweden, Switzerland grow teams.

Jødahl Named New President, CEO of Alimak Group

The Alimak Group has selected Ole Kristian Jødahl to become the company’s president and CEO, the board announced in March. He will officially begin his duties with the Sweden-based manufacturer of industrial and construction lifts on June 1. VertiKal.net said Jødahl is coming to Alimak from Hultafors, a manufacturer of hand tools for which he has served as CEO since 2017. He previously served as an instructor with the Norwegian Army before studying business management at the Norwegian School of Economics. He spent 17 years at bearing-maker SKF before joining Hultafors in 2016. Jødahl will replace Alimak President and CEO Tormod Gunleiksrud, who announced his departure in January (ELEVATOR WORLD, March 2020). The company said Gunleiksrud will stay on until Jødahl starts in the new position.

Industry Veteran Pagan Joins CEDES Sales Team

Landquart, Switzerland-based sensor manufacturer CEDES AG has added elevator industry veteran Antonio Pagan to its sales team as key account manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the rest of the world (EMEA & RoW), the company announced in March. Pagan studied physics and sales and marketing, and has 18 years’ experience with various elevator companies. Andreas Hunziker, managing director, EMEA & RoW, welcomed Pagan, saying, “With his experience and contacts in the industry, we are sure the positive results will soon be achieved.” CEDES has subsidiaries in China, Singapore, Japan and the U.S.

Coronavirus Cancellations, Reschedulings

ELEVATOR WORLD has been the vertical-transportation industry’s source for news and information for 67 years, and we aim to continue to be during the coronavirus pandemic affecting readers, advertisers, employees, contributors and associates around the world. Unfortunately, quarantine and social distancing efforts have affected the following industry events outside the U.S.:

• The International Association of Elevator Engineers (IAEE) has postponed Elevcon 2020 (elevcon.com). It has been rescheduled for June 15-17, 2021, still in Prague at the Grandior Hotel.
• Organizers of the World Elevator & Escalator Expo 2020 (www. elevator-expo.com) in Shanghai have postponed the event until August 18-21. The biennial event is to be held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center.
• Lift Expo Italia 2020 (liftexpoitalia.com) organizer ANICA (Italian elevator components association) has announced a rescheduling of the event to September 30-October 2. It is to be held at MICO – Milan Convention Center, Level 0 North Wing, in Milan, Italy.
• The May Symposium on Lift and Escalator Technologies
• (liftsymposium.org) event, which was to be held in Shanghai, has been postponed until an undetermined time. The September 23-24 edition in Northampton, U.K., called the Lift & Escalator Symposium, is to proceed as planned.
• The European Lift Association (ELA) Annual Conference (ela-aisbl.eu), which had been scheduled for May in Brussels, Belgium, has been postponed until, tentatively, September 17. It will still take place in Brussels.
• ExpoElevador (www.expoelevador.com), the biennial tradeshow in São Paulo, Brazil, has been rescheduled to March 1-3, 2021.
• Ascen.tec (ascen-tec.gr/en), the second iteration of the industry expo that had been scheduled for May in Paiania, Greece, has been postponed until an undetermined time.
• The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has rescheduled its 2020 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference to take place during the CTBUH Conference (ctbuhconference.com) on October 19-23. No longer in Chicago, the CTBUH Awards Program will be incorporated into the October event at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. A “Regional City Program” (bit.ly/2QF97Yg) during the CTBUH Conference will take place in Kuala Lumpur.

Visit “Daily News” at www.elevatorworld.com and subscribe to ELENET for updates. For affected U.S. events, see p. 16.

Complaints Prompt Look Into Stockholm VT Breakdowns

How often do escalators break down in Stockholm’s public-transportation system? It’s hard to say, The Local reported in February. Acting on complaints it received from readers in the Swedish capital, the news site took a look at Stockholm Public Transport (SL), the company that operates the city’s light-rail, commuter and underground rail system, as well as its ferries, buses and trams. The system handles about 3 million rides per day at some 7,000 stations, stops and docks. Within these locations, SL operates 500 escalators and 465 elevators. Needed maintenance action on the vertical transportation (VT) is recorded in “error reports,” but these don’t necessarily mean an escalator or elevator has broken down; many of them are responses to graffiti and stickers that do not impact operation. There were 6,779 error reports filed in the first quarter of 2019 regarding escalators, but SL estimated only a fraction of them caused shutdowns. SL estimates each escalator averages two shutdowns per month, with the majority of the issues resolved within 2 hr.

As for what causes breakdowns, SL said the trouble often starts when a foreign object becomes caught in the combplate. By law, a broken combplate tooth requires shutdown until repairs can be made, and SL said this is especially common in wintertime, when sand and gravel dropped on icy roads are tracked into stations on riders’ shoes. Routine maintenance is another cause of shutdowns, and if a potential problem is discovered, the unit may be put out of service until repairs can be undertaken. The report noted that, between 2015 and 2019, SL had a replacement project budgeted at SEK1.5 billion (US$154 million). During that period, 130 elevators and 66 escalators were replaced.