At Destra Business Service, we take elevator safety serious!
One of the ways we increase elevator safety awareness within our crew is stay up-to-date with elevator code as provided by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
ASME is a non-profit organization that develops standards and codes for industry and promotes the engineering and technology community through technical, educational, and research efforts.
ASME a17.1
ASME A17.1 is the Safety Code For Elevators And Escalators as recognized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). It serves as the basis of regulations and guidelines for all things related to elevators, dumbwaiters, escalators, moving walks, and material lifts; including emergency elevator phone guidelines.
The ASME A17.1-2022 code is designed to ensure the safety of life and limb and to promote public welfare. It addresses a wide range of equipment, including elevators, escalators, moving walks, dumbwaiters, material lifts, and their associated components, rooms, spaces, and hoist-ways. The primary focus of ASME A17.1 is on safety, with stringent guidelines in place to ensure the secure operation of elevators. These safety measures are primarily incorporated into the construction of the elevators, covering aspects such as the use of appropriate materials, allowable stress limits, suspension systems for cars and counterweights, and braking mechanisms, among others.
For escalators and moving walks, the design specifications are similarly safety-oriented but tailored to the specific equipment. For instance, escalator guidelines include detailed requirements for balustrades, specifying materials like glass or plastic, as well as strength and geometry standards.
The ASME A17.1-2022 document is organized into distinct parts to facilitate compliance. Each part, aside from those covering general requirements, focuses on specific equipment types, such as electric elevators, hydraulic elevators, elevators with other drive mechanisms, special application elevators, escalators, moving walks, dumbwaiters, and material lifts. Overall, the document covers a broad range of safety considerations while remaining concise enough for adoption by regulatory authorities.
Updates to ASME a17.3 Safety Code for Existing Elevators and Escalators – as per ANSI
Changes to ASME A17.3-2023 ASME A17.3-2023 revises the 2020 edition of the same standard. As the twelfth edition, to keep its information current, this revision underwent numerous editorial changes and updates, as well as these changes:
New Subparagraph (d) was added to Section 2.3.1, “Access to pits,” detailing requirements for fixed vertical ladders within reach of the access doors of pits.
New Section 2.6.8, “Bottom Safety Retainers,” was added. New Subparagraph (v) Retractable Ladder Electrical Device was added to Section 3.10.4, “Electrical Protective Devices.”
New Subparagraph (c)(2) was added to Section 5.1.11, “Step/Skirt Performance Index,” to specify the escalator step/skirt performance index for escalators installed under ASME A17.1a-2002 or CSA B44-00 Update 1 and later editions and when a skirt deflector device is provided, and the former (c)(2) was revised and redesignated as (c)(3).
New Section 5.3.13, “Combplate Vertical Safety Device,” was added. Several cross-references for machinery and equipment for hydraulic dumbwaiters in Section 6.3 were corrected by errata.
New Section 9.6.14, “Combplate Vertical Safety Device,” was added. ASME A17.3-2023: Safety Code for Existing Elevators and Escalators is available on the ANSI Webstore.
Changes to ASME A17.3-2020
The previous edition of the code, ASME A17.3-2020 updated and superseded the 2017 edition of the same standard. As the eleventh edition, this revision underwent numerous editorial changes and updates, as well as some notable changes listed below:
New Section 3.8.5, “Emergency Brake,” was added. Requirements for ascending car overspeed and unintended car movements protection were added. This resulted in the addition of new Sections 3.13, “Ascending Car Overspeed and Unintended Car Movement Protection,” 3.10.13, “Ascending Car Overspeed Protection Device,” and 3.10.14, “Unintended Car Movement Device,” as well as expanded provisions for counterweight safeties and control and operating circuit requirements.
New Section 4.7.9, “System to Monitor and Prevent Automatic Operation of the Elevator With Faulty Door Contact Circuits,” was added. Changes to ASME A17.3-2017 ASME A17.3-2017 replaced the 2015 edition. This tenth edition was a significant update.
For users who need to be familiar with its changes, we’ve listed them below: Definitions for base, building; control, mechanical-hydraulic; conveyor, vertical reciprocating (VRC); elevator, outside emergency; and several other terms were added. Reference documents and procurement information tables were updated.
Guideline on guarding chain drives and belt drives from accidental contact was removed from 3.8.3(b) on “Indirect-Drive Machines.”
Clarification that control and operating circuits should conform to the guidelines of 3.10.12, “System to Monitor and Prevent Automatic Operation of the Elevator With Faulty Door Contact Circuits.”
Clarification in Part X, “Private Residence Elevators,” that private residences are usually exempt from “periodic” inspections, not “routine” inspections.
There was a substantial expansion of 10.1.4.2 on “Clearance Between Hoistway Doors and Landing Sills and Car Doors or Gates.” The clearance between the hoistway doors and the hoistway edge was minimized, as was the distance between the hoistway face of the landing car and the car door or gate, based on one of five circumstances. Share this blog post:
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Learn more about the safety code for elevators at ANSI