Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 38, September 21, 2024
(a)
General. The shaftways of passenger elevators shall be
equipped with landing doors. The main or lowest landing door of all elevators
except automatic control, dual control, or double-button control elevators
shall be provided with a removable service key by which the door may be opened
when the car is at that landing. Doors at the lowest level and next to the
lowest level of elevators located in adjacent or multiple shaftways in new
installations except as noted in subsection (e) of this section, shall be
equipped in such a manner that they may be opened, regardless of the location
of the car, with a formed emergency key located under glass in the entryway or
corridor on the lowest floor. Such elevators may have all landing doors so
equipped. If an elevator is installed in a single shaftway, the emergency key
shall open all shaftway doors. This rule also applies to existing installations
when new landing doors are installed. A notice shall be placed on or over the
enclosure for the key, to the effect that the key is not to be used except in
case of emergency.
(b)
Landing doors. The landing doors of passenger elevators shall
conform to the following:
(1)
Position. The landing doors of all passenger elevators shall
have the inner side set as near flush with the interior walls of the shaftway
as is con sistent with the proper operation of such doors.
(2)
Doors. Swinging doors
may be used at the shaftway entrances of automatic control elevators. Landing
doors of the butterfly, or folding, and slide-swing types are permissible. The
swinging panel arrangement shall be used only for emergency loads and not for
passenger traffic. Biparting or vertical operating doors are not permitted on
passenger elevators used exclusively for passenger service but may be installed
on combination passenger and freight elevators as provided in §
7.37(d)
(relating to combination elevators). Landing doors shall be at least 6 feet, 6
inches in height and shall be so constructed that when opened the opening does
not have a width in excess of the opening of the elevator car, when the
elevator car door or gate is in an open position.
(3)
Construction of entrances.
Landing entrances shall be securely attached to the walls of the
shaftway and constructed of approved fire-resistive materials. Each door panel
of such entrances shall be constructed to withstand a constant force of 250
pounds applied at right angles to, and approximately at the center of, the door
panel without causing the door to be displaced, break, or be permanently
deformed. When fireproof shaftway construction is required the door panels
shall be of approved 1 1/2 hour fire-resistive construction, and shall bear
certification to this effect from a recognized official testing laboratory.
Such door panels shall be self-closing and kept normally closed. When transom
panels are installed, they shall be of the same construction as the door
panels. Where biparting or vertically opening doors are permitted, such
entrances shall have a one hour certified fire-resistive test rating.
(4)
New doors. New doors
shall be provided if interlocks cannot be fitted to existing doors or if doors
are in such condition as to prohibit the necessary changes or repairs being
made. Existing hollow metal doors of existing shaftways meeting the intent of
this provision may be reused upon approval by the Department.
(c)
Operation-sliding
doors. When horizontal sliding or rolling doors are used at the
shaftway entrances of passenger elevators, they may be opened but shall not be
closed by independent power, except when the mechanism employed has been
approved by the Board. In such cases means shall be provided to permit the
manual operation of the landing doors and car doors or gates from within the
car in the event of failure of power. Kinetic energy and force limitations for
power door operators used with horizontally sliding hoistway doors and
horizontally sliding car tops or gates shall comply with Rule
112.4 of the ASA
A17.1-1960.
(d)
Locking
devices. Elevators, except water or steam hydraulic passenger and
freight elevators that are now in use or that may hereafter be constructed for
the carriage of passengers, shall have placed on them or attached to them an
automatic locking device, subject to the following:
(1) Locking devices shall be of the
mechanical or electro-mechanical type, designed and constructed so as to secure
the elevator car in the stop position or place the power of controlling the
elevator beyond the control of the attendant while any gate or door at the
landing which is used for entrance to the car is open and unsecured.
(2) The shaftway doors of hydraulic elevators
shall be provided with an approved electro-mechanical locking device. On
maintained-pressure hydraulic elevators it shall operate in conjunction with an
approved, normally closed, electrical valve operating system.
(3) Locking devices shall be approved before
use. No locking device of any kind other than an approved type is permitted on
any hoistway door.
(4) Locking
devices shall be such that they are not affected by ordinary deviation from
true alignment of either the car or the landing doors and shall not project
into the shaftway to such an extent as to create a hazard.
(5) On elevators installed subsequent to
December 15, 1924, the operation of locking devices shall not cause the
unlocking of the landing door as the car passes the landings with the
controller in the "on" position.
(6) Each locking device installed in this
Commonwealth shall be stamped or otherwise have irremovably placed thereon a
type or model number which shall correspond to the type model number listed
with the Department when such device was approved, and no change shall be made
in the design of approved locking devices unless the Board is notified and
agrees to such change.
(7)
Interlocks using hoistway door-closer arms as a door-locking device shall
conform to the following:
(i) Interlocks shall
be so designed, installed, and adjusted that the making of the electric contact
to permit operation of the driving machine will occur only when the door arms
are in such a position as to prevent the manual opening of a closed hoistway
door, from the landing side, except with a formed emergency key.
(ii) During the door-closing operation, means
shall be provided for a substantial latitude in the relation between the
mechanical lock of the door-closer arms, and the making of the electric
contact, by auxiliary means, either by overtravel of door arms below
horizontal, or other comparably approved means to prevent misadjustment and to
provide adequate contact wiping action, satisfactory contact pressure, and
reliable operation.
(iii) The
design shall be such that the relationship between the locked position of the
door arms and the making of the electric contact may not be readily misadjusted
or changed, and will maintain proper adjustment between the mechanical lock and
electric contact.
(iv) Interlocks
using door-closer arms as a mechanical locking device are not
permitted.
(v) Interlocks not
conforming with these requirements may be submitted to the Board for special
approval.
(8) When
springs are used in locking devices to create and maintain a condition of
safety, they shall be of such strength as to insure against a hazardous
condition through breakage or misplacement.
(9) If the locking device is so constructed
that it prevents the operation of the car due to the opening of any shaftway
door or car gate other than the one at which the car may be standing, there may
be an approved emergency release switch located in the car. Such emergency
release, if furnished, shall be under glass cover. When actuated, such device
will permit the operation of the car without regard to the position of the
doors. Such a release shall be so constructed and installed that in order to
allow the car to be moved in the event of emergency, it will be necessary to
break the glass and hold the release in the operating position. The design of
this device shall be such that it cannot be tampered with or plugged in the
operating position. Its use shall be confined only to emergencies and a sign to
this effect together with instructions for the proper use of the device shall
be posted adjacent thereto. Inching buttons may, however, be used for the
operation of elevators at creeping speed with landing door open provided such
inching buttons will move the car only in a direction towards the landing, and
are limited to a zone nine inches above or below the landing. Emergency release
switches shall not be used on any elevators controlled from a landing. An
emergency release switch is intended to release both car gates and landing
doors.
(e)
Emergency entrances. Each elevator operating in a single blind
shaftway shall have emergency entrances provided in the blind portion of the
shaftway. Such emergency entrances shall be provided at every third floor, but
not over 36 feet apart, to permit access to the elevator in the blind portion
of the shaftway. Such emergency entrances shall be at least 30 inches wide, 48
inches high, easily accessible, and free from obstructions. Such doors shall
also be provided with a contact and a lock approved for the purpose. The
special key used to operate such locks from the corridor side shall open all
emergency entrances and shall be kept behind a break glass cover in the entry
way or corridor at the main or street floor, and marked for emergency entrances
in the blind shaftway.
This section cited in 34 Pa. Code §
7.17 (relating to prohibited
installations); 34 Pa. Code §
7.37 (relating to combination
elevators); 34 Pa. Code §
7.71 (relating to conflicts); 34
Pa. Code §
7.149 (relating to hoistway
doors); and 34 Pa. Code §
7.189 (relating to hoistway
doors).
