Thursday, April 10, 2014

Elevator Fail-Safes Need Regular Maintenance Too

Elevators are a safe and convenient way to get to any floor of your residential or office building. Each unit is outfitted with several fail-safe mechanisms that ensure the safety of passengers in case of an accident.

Elevators typically make use of several high-tension steel cables. In truth, each elevator only needs one cable to operate properly. However, several cables are used as a fail-safe to keep the elevator suspended in the event one cable snaps (this is very unlikely to happen if the unit is well-maintained).

In the extremely unlikely event all the cables snap, passengers should not worry too much. Despite the way movies depict falling elevators, real units have an intricate brake system that effectively halts an elevator if it starts moving too fast.

Although there are a large number of fail-safe systems installed in each elevator, building management and elevator maintenance crews should not completely rely on these fail-safes. These safety measures are most effective when partnered with regular and thorough maintenance and inspection.


Instruct your maintenance crew to pay close attention to the condition of the fail-safes. If your inspection reveals a weak point in any section of the elevator, immediately call a machine shop that also does work on elevators and order any necessary replacement parts.

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