Cover:Serum Institute Burj Khalifa - Elevator World India

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by K. Subramanian
K. Subramaniam has been executive director –
Technical for Johnson Lifts since 1988. He has 43
years of lift-industry experience.
Subramaniam began in
the Design & Development
Department of Best
& Crompton Engineering
in 1964 then worked with
ECE Industries as regional
manager – South from 1980
until 1988. He received his
BS in Electrical Engineering
from Kerala University in 1964.
36
ELEVATOR WORLD India • 4th Quarter 2010 •
With the economic growth in realestate
and building businesses in
India, barring the recent economic
situation, the elevator market has
synergistically seen much growth.
Many companies, both local and foreign,
have strengthened/established
their operations in India. One can see
the impact by way of technological
and cosmetic changes in presentday
elevators, which include microprocessor
and serial communication
electronic controls, fancy shapes in
the lift cabin with comparatively
expensive panels with stainless steel
and glass, lobby doors with various
designs in stainless steel, fancy and
colorful call-button fixtures and indicators
in the lobby.
The elevator is one of the most
essential and critical utilities of the
building. It is needless to emphasize
that elevator installation must be
done with all due care to ensure that,
as an important asset of the building,
it has a minimum life of at least 20
years before one could think of renovation.
Similar to bricks, cement,
steel rods, etc. that go into the main
structure of the building, elevators
also have many parts and accessories
that are assembled and embedded at
the site to give the systems their final
shapes.
For a good installation at site, there
are some prerequisite work sequences
and required times. In elevator contracts,
it is a work order for supply and
installation of the lifts. There is no
avenue to use to buy the materials
from one agency and get them installed
by another. Though with great
efforts this is technically possible, as
an industry practice, it is not done.
Storage of materials is one of the
problems that can provide lots of
woes. This is a predicament faced by
the customer, as well the elevator
company.
Elevator materials are not to be
equated to tiles, cement or bricks.
So-called elevator materials can be
ordinary steel structures, certain
machined and finished steel com -
ponents like rails, electromechanical
assemblies like the main machine,
door operators, limit switches,
wheels, controllers, indicators and
call-button assemblies that are as
sensitive as TVs and computers.
Apart from this, there are items like
car body panels, door panels made
out of stainless steel and glass with
specific, expensive and exotic finishes
and tints.
Handling and storage of lift materials
needs more understanding of the
complex nature of the accessories
and assemblies. The same care with
which the specification was discussed
and finalized for the car body
and doors is required to preserve the
finishes by having good storage
provisions at a site. This aspect is not
given its due priority and importance.
Spending some time in finding a
mutually agreed solution will go a long
way in providing a good installation.
It goes without saying that that
depends on how the materials are
safeguarded against damages at site.
Building construction methods
and systems have also changed due
to technological innovations and
improvements. A lot of focus is given
toward speeding up the work and
completing the project quicker. Installation
of the lifts is a mini project
within the main project. It is an
activity pervading in all floors right
from the bottom to the top level, and
even beyond where the machine
room is normally located.
The guide rails, machine and other
accessories at the machine room,
landing-door assemblies at all floor
levels, call buttons, indicators, etc.
are all fixed/embedded at the site.