Building Utilities: Elevator and Escalator Systems

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering elevator and escalator components, technical classifications, operating features, safety mechanisms, and fire protection methods.

Elevator

A conveying device used to move people or freight vertically, usually between floors of a building.

Hydraulic Elevator

An elevator system that uses a fluid-driven hydraulic jack (cylinder and plunger), pump, control valve, and fluid reservoir to push the elevator car upward from below.

Conventional (Holed) Hydraulic Elevator

A hydraulic elevator configuration where an in-ground hydraulic jack lifts the car, requiring a deep well hole drilled into the ground and cased below the lowest landing.

Telescopic Hydraulic Elevator

A hydraulic elevator featuring a telescoping plunger composed of concentric sliding tubes, which accommodates lifts with a shallow hole or no deep underground well hole.

Hole-less Hydraulic Elevator

A hydraulic elevator system utilizing one or two jacks situated beside the guide rails to raise the platform, completely eliminating the need for an in-ground cylinder hole.

Roped Hydraulic Elevator

A hydraulic elevator system combining hydraulic power and wire ropes, typically using a cantilevered car lifted by ropes routed over a sheave mounted atop a hydraulic plunger.

Traction Elevator

An elevator driven by an electric motor and grooved drive sheave that moves the car and counterweight up and down using friction along steel hoisting ropes.

Counterweight

A set of steel or iron plates attached to the hoisting ropes that counterbalances the car, weighted to equal the car's dead weight plus $40\%$ to $50\%$ of its rated load capacity.

Geared Traction Machine

A traction drive system in which the electric motor turns a mechanical gear reduction unit to rotate the drive sheave, typically used for mid-rise applications up to $300\,\text{ft}$ at speeds up to $500\,\text{fpm}$.

Gearless Traction Machine

A high-speed electric motor system whose drive sheave is connected directly to the motor shaft without intermediate gearing, suited for high-rise buildings above 20 stories at speeds of $500\,\text{fpm}$ and higher.

Machine Room-Less (MRL) Elevator

An elevator system employing a compact gearless traction machine mounted entirely inside the hoistway, eliminating the requirement for a separate penthouse machine room.

Infrared Safety Curtain

A door protective device that optical-scans the areas adjacent to the elevator entrance and automatically commands closing doors to reopen upon detecting an obstruction.

Electronic Photo-Eye

A door protection system that projects two or more fixed light beams across the elevator entrance, causing doors to reopen whenever a beam is broken.

Mechanical Edge

A physical door safety reopening device along the leading edge of an elevator door that triggers reopening only upon physical contact with a person or object.

Elevator Leveling

The automatic alignment procedure ensuring that an elevator car platform stops within a specified tolerance of $\pm \frac{1}{2}\,\text{in}$ of the landing sill floor level.

Coated Steel Belt

An elevator suspension medium consisting of high-tensile zinc-plated steel cords encased in a polyurethane jacket, offering greater flexibility and less vibration than traditional steel ropes.

Service Shape

An elevator car proportion that is deep and narrow, optimized to accommodate maintenance supplies, service carts, and elongated equipment.

Passenger Shape

An elevator car proportion that is wide and shallow, engineered to facilitate rapid boarding and exiting without passengers getting trapped at the back of the car.

Clutch

A mechanical engaging device on the car door that mechanically grips and couples with the hoistway landing door rollers to move both doors simultaneously.

Compensating Chain

A welded link chain suspended between the bottom of the elevator car and the counterweight to offset the shifting weight of the hoisting cables as the car travels.

Compounding Sheave

A pulley mounted on an elevator car or counterweight around which the hoisting cables pass to double the lifting capacity while halving the car speed.

Double Gibs

Guide components affixed to the bottom edge of sliding door panels that travel within sill grooves to prevent doors from swinging inward or outward.

Door Hanger

A roller track assembly mounted to the top of an elevator door panel that mechanically suspends the door and facilitates smooth horizontal sliding travel.

Governor (Elevator)

A mechanical, wire-rope-driven centrifugal speed-monitoring assembly that halts driving rope motion and activates the car safety gear if rated speeds are exceeded.

Guide Rail

Vertical steel T-shaped, round, or formed beams anchored within a hoistway to guide and stabilize the vertical travel path of the car and counterweight.

Hoistway

A fire-rated shaft enclosure bounded by fireproof walls and landing doors within which elevators, dumbwaiters, or material lifts travel.

Pickup Rollers

Hardware mounted on hoistway landing doors that mate with the car door clutch to enable the power operator to open and close hoistway doors.

Safety (Elevator)

A heavy-duty clamping device installed on the elevator car frame designed to mechanically grip the guide rails and stop the car in an overspeed or free-fall condition.

Shackle

A threaded rod into which hoist cables are socketed, used to fasten the cables to the car hitch plate and counterweight frame.

Sling

The structural steel framework consisting of stiles, a crosshead, and a bolster or safety plank that encloses and carries the passenger cab and platform.

Escalator

A power-driven, continuously circulating inclined stairway installed at a standard angle of $30^\circ$ from the horizontal to transport passengers between building floors.

Crisscross Arrangement

The most common and space-efficient escalator layout, where upward and downward moving stairs crisscross within a compact continuous vertical footprint.

Parallel Escalators

An escalator configuration where units run side by side in the same or opposite directions, demanding more floor area than crisscross layouts.

Truss (Escalator)

A structural welded steel space frame that houses the running gear, tracks, and mechanism, supporting the complete weight of the escalator apparatus.

Tracks (Escalator)

Formed steel angle guide rails fastened inside the truss that direct and support the step rollers, dictating the travel path and posture of the steps.

Handrail (Escalator)

A continuous rubber/polymeric hand grip driven by drive sheaves and synchronized to travel at the identical speed of the steps ($100\,\text{fpm}$ or $0.51\,\text{m/s}$).

Combplate

A toothed platform section positioned at escalator terminal landings designed to intermesh with the grooved step treads to prevent foot trapping and tripping.

Balustrade

The side protective barrier of an escalator extending above the steps that supports the moving handrail and prevents clothing or baggage from becoming snagged.

Governor (Escalator)

An automatic safety device that immediately interrupts power and applies the service brake if the escalator experiences an overspeed, underspeed, or unplanned reversal.

Rolling Shutter (Escalator)

A fire containment assembly consisting of a motorized steel curtain that unrolls across the floor opening around an escalator to stop vertical fire and draft spread.

Smoke Guard

A fire protection method utilizing non-combustible draft barriers suspended beneath the ceiling around escalator floor openings to trap rising smoke.

Spray-Nozzle Curtain

A fire protection installation consisting of dedicated high-velocity water deluge nozzles configured to create a dense water curtain around the escalator wellway.

Sprinkler Vent

A fire protection system incorporating an exhaust air opening combined with automatic sprinkler heads to safely extract smoke and cool the floor penetration.