Lift and escalator installation

Lift and escalator installation: how it works

Installation starts not with equipment on site but with the builder's work drawings. We give the designer the clear internal shaft dimensions, pit depth, headroom, the loads on the floor slabs and on the guide rail fixings, the positions of embedded parts, and the connection points for the power supply and low-voltage systems. If the shaft has already been cast without this data, there are two options: choose a lift to fit the actual dimensions or break out concrete. The second costs more than it seems at first.

On site the sequence of work is always the same: accepting the shaft and checking it for plumb and dimensions, scaffolding or working from the car roof, aligning the car and counterweight guide rails, installing the traction machine and controller, hanging the ropes or traction belts, assembling the car frame and car body, then the landing doors floor by floor, the travelling cable and wiring. What takes longest is not the mechanical components but adjusting the doors and the levelling accuracy - that is exactly what the acceptance inspection picks up on.

Next come commissioning and the paperwork. The equipment arrives with the manufacturer's passport and declaration of conformity; we prepare the installation documentation, hidden works certificates and test reports. Putting into operation takes place with a third-party inspection body: static and dynamic tests, checks that the safety gear and overspeed governor trip correctly, and checks of the buffers and the safety circuit. Registration with the technical supervision authority and handing the full set of documents over to the operating organization are also on us.

We make two things clear from the outset. A lift cannot be installed in a shaft where wet trades are still under way or where there is no permanent lighting and power, and the client pays for the crew's idle time. Second, a lift may carry passengers only under a valid maintenance contract - this is best sorted out in parallel with installation, not after handover.