Heilbronn Elevator Days Draws Hundreds

The Technical Academy of Heilbronn (TAH), based in Heilbronn, Germany, brought together nearly 350 industry professionals for the 34th Heilbronn Elevator Days conference on March 7-8. The event drew technical experts mainly from German-speaking countries, including Austria and Switzerland. The majority of the participants were from TÜV-affiliated inspection companies or public-safety institutions.

While similar to the European Lift Congress Heilbronn, also organized by TAH, Elevator Days’ 13 speakers focused on Germany.

About 30 companies exhibited their products and services at an accompanying, completely booked expo, and some of the speakers brought products, as well, passing around such items as lightweight ropes during their presentations. The conference format allowed for audience questions and included numerous business-networking opportunities during long coffee and lunch breaks. An evening social event was dedicated to the region’s wines.

“As usual, standardization is a central topic of the conference,” said conference Chairman Klaus Dietel of TÜV Nord Systems. The main speaker on the topic was Gerhard Schiffner of thyssenkrupp Elevator, who discussed EN 81. A second central topic, concerning the safety of lift workers, addressed a new German industrial safety law. It focused on three priorities to reduce accidents: technical improvements, organizational measures and training for workers. Innovative production methods, addressed by Stefan Utecht and Uwe Tiltmann of Composyst, among others, was the third major conference topic. Utecht and Tiltmann explained how they are reducing elevator cabin weight by using materials such as carbon fiber.

Finally, R. Hoppenstedt and Thomas Florian of Ziehl-Abegg spoke about their work with thinner, plastic-coated ropes, which enable the use of smaller-diameter traction sheaves.

The next conference is scheduled for March 6-7, 2018. Reported by Undine Stricker-Berghoff, ProEconomy.