Earlier in the summer at the International Association of Elevator Consultants Annual Forum in Las Vegas, a speaker, Dave Hardin of ATIS Elevator Consulting, was talking about the lifecycles of vertical-transportation equipment. “They are getting shorter,” he said. Traction and hydraulics may have a lifecycle of 25 years, but a machine-room-less system lasts as little as 12 years. Hardin said with microprocessor and chip technology, we have become a “throwaway society.” He was speaking to consultants, and he urged them to become the “conscience of the industry” by adding value to their clients’ portfolios. Building owners care about lifecycles. The same could be said of those who build the equipment. They need to care about the lifecycle because their customer does. Of course, that is only half of the equation. The other half is maintenance. Most of our industry spends their time being equipment “caretakers.” We can extend the lifecycle by taking really good care of the equipment. Thomas Edison said, “Opportunities are often missed because they come dressed in overalls and look like work.” The same could be said of maintenance.
Our focus this month is on Maintenance. We have four articles.
- The Benefits of Refurbishing Variable Frequency Drives by David Griffin. The author makes a case for refurbishing existing VFDs instead of replacing them with a new drive.
- Advancement in Elevator-Specific VFD Technology. The introduction of advanced monitoring capabilities enables technicians to have real-time access to critical data and performance metrics.
- Maintenance Made Easy by Kathleen Farrell. AuditMate provides a new way for customers who own elevators to look at maintenance contracts.
- Elevator Monitoring Solutions by Adrian Mace. TVC in London brings its 40 years of monitoring solutions to the U.S. as it partners with Vantage on their next generation system.
We used part of the late spring to survey the U.S. industry and were surprised to receive nearly 100 responses. See The State of the U.S. Elevator Industry 2023 by Kaija Wilkinson for a closer look at the challenges the industry is facing.
This was also a time of constant travel, with several staff members passing each other at airports. Many events were having their first in two or three years. Your author covered Elevcon 2023 in Prague, At Last!, which was quite successful with 29 speakers and a three-day program. Wilkinson traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the Elevator U event that she called A Grand Return, because their last meeting (three years ago) had been at the same hotel and university. Our historian, Dr. Lee Gray, teaches at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and was delighted to have all those elevator people to talk to. Days later, our managing editor, Angie Baldwin, traveled with EW President T. Bruce MacKinnon to the Canadian Elevator Contractors Association convention in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was not easy to get to but, according to Baldwin, was Well Worth the Wait. Some 370 attended for an immersive maritime experience. That pretty much finished the spring and summer “return to travel” and meetings.
Next, coming up early this month, is the National Association of Elevator Contractors 74th Annual Convention and Exposition in Reno, Nevada. Please see Clear Skies by Kathleen Farrell. We take the opportunity to promote it with a map of the exhibit floor, a list of exhibitors and a mini agenda of education and activities.
We can’t wait to see you out on the road! Hope you enjoy this issue; it is one of the largest this year. Either way, you can let me know at ricia@elevatorworld.com.
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