Pennsylvania Code › Title 34 - LABOR AND INDUSTRY › Part I - Department of Labor and Industry › Chapter 7 - ELEVATORS, LIFTS, ESCALATORS, DUMBWAITERS, HOISTS ANDTRAMWAYS › Subchapter B - PASSENGER ELEVATORS › SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS › Section 7.73 - Automatic control passenger elevators

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a)
					 Automatic control passenger elevators shall not be constructed and installed
					 unless a special permit is first obtained from the Department. Their use is at
					 all times subject to any special regulations applied to them by the Department
					 for the protection of the public and employes.
(b) Such elevators are subject to all of the
					 requirements covering electric passenger elevators, except as to door
					 interlocks, emergency releases, emergency stop switches, and
					 operators.
(c) The landing doors of
					 automatic control passenger elevators shall be equipped with approved
					 interlocking switches so arranged that the elevator car is held immovable while
					 any landing door is opened or unlocked, and so that such door or doors are not
					 opened after the elevator car has left the landing. Retiring cams are not
					 required on one story two-landing elevators erected prior to January 1, 1954.
					 Such devices shall not be 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. On all elevators installed subsequent to
					 December 15,1924, the operation of such a device shall not cause the unlocking
					 of the landing door as the car passes the landing with the power on.
(d) The cars of automatic control passenger
					 elevators shall not have openings on more than two sides. Sliding or rolling
					 doors or collapsible gates are required at all car openings; and such gates
					 shall be equipped with switches so connected to the car control circuit as to
					 hold the car immovable while the gates are open.
(e) The control circuit shall be so arranged
					 as to make it impossible for the elevator car to be started automatically upon
					 the manual closing of any landing door, car door, or gate, but will operate
					 only by the buttons or switches at the landing or in the elevator car. Such
					 doors or gates shall also be so connected to the control circuit that if the
					 car is started for a given landing no impulse may be given from any landing to
					 send the car in the reverse direction until it reaches the destination
					 corresponding to the first impulse. An exception exists when the car has
					 stopped at an intermediate landing to take on or discharge passengers desiring
					 to go in the direction determined by the first impulse when the closing of the
					 car gate may be sufficient to start the car.
(f) In new installations, in addition to the
					 directional buttons in the cars of automatic controlled elevators, a switch or
					 button shall be provided to enable passengers to stop the car at any point of
					 its travel. When a self-restoring switch or button is used and the car has been
					 started from within, releasing the switch or button shall not permit restarting
					 the car except by the operating device in the car, unless the car gate or
					 hoistway landing door has been opened and closed. Switches and buttons shall be
					 plainly marked "stop," and the operating button or handle shall be of a
					 different color from any other switch in the car. For new construction,
					 contacts of emergency stop switches or buttons shall be directly opened
					 mechanically and such operation shall not be dependent upon springs. In
					 existing installations, in addition to the directional buttons in the cars of
					 automatic-controlled elevators a switch or button shall be provided to enable
					 passengers to stop the car at any point of its travel.
(g) Independent constant-pressure control
					 buttons shall be provided in the cars of collective pushbutton elevators, which
					 permit the car to be operated in either direction without interference from
					 landings or normal car control buttons. The necessary controlling switches to
					 make such buttons operative shall be located in the penthouse or on the main
					 control board. When existing installations are provided with such switches in
					 the cars, these switches may remain if they are properly marked and placed
					 under glass cover. In new installations, independent constant-pressure control
					 buttons shall be provided in or on top of all electric automatic-controlled
					 elevators which permit the car to be operated in either direction at a speed
					 not to exceed 150 feet per minute without interference from landing or normal
					 car control buttons. If these control buttons are located on top of the car, a
					 red manual stop button or switch shall be provided. Buttons shall be plainly
					 marked to indicate their purpose.
(h) Pushbuttons shall not control the
					 operation of elevators in school buildings, sanitariums for the mentally
					 deficients, and similar classes of buildings where there is danger of the abuse
					 of the purpose of such buttons, unless the pushbuttons are made inaccessible to
					 the occupants or are key operated. A decision on this point all be made at the
					 time of the approval of the plans for such elevators.
(i) Automatic operation elevators shall be
					 provided with an audible emergency signal gong, at least 4 inches in diameter,
					 operative from the car and located outside of the hoistway, or with a telephone
					 connected to a central exchange.
This section cited in 34 Pa. Code §
													7.71 (relating to conflicts) 34
						  Pa. Code §
													7.149 (relating to hoistway
						  doors); 34 Pa. Code §
													7.189 (relating to hoistway
						  doors); and 34 Pa. Code §
													7.293 (relating to automatic and
						  dual control freight elevators).