Industries	- Elevator Services

Elevator Services

Member of the National Association Elevator Contractors.

View a PDF copy of our AECO certificate.

TÜV SÜD America Inc. holds Accredited Elevator Certification Organization (AECO) status from both ANSI and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC).

Modern life would be inconceivable without elevators. They ensure comfortable passenger transport in multi-story residential buildings and safe and rapid control of passenger flow in airports or railway stations.

There are between 700,000 and 800,000 elevators in operation in the United States, playing a vital role in the everyday lives of most individuals. Yet many people give little thought to the safety of these convenient transportation devices. Advancements in technology, architecture and engineering place an ever-increasing demand on elevators to travel higher, faster, quieter, and more efficiently than ever before.

Elevators are high-tech systems which must function safely.

In order to continue its worldwide, exemplary safety record in the face of these advancements, the National Elevator Industry, Inc. (NEII) identified the need for a new safety code for elevators to provide a uniform structural approach and effectively evaluate the safety of new products — ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7.

About ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7
The first elevator code, known as ASME A17.1, was published in 1921 and subsequently revised numerous times throughout the years. Following the European and Asian-based model that adopted the performance-based codes (PBC) such as the Lift Directive 95/16/EC in 1995, the new PBC allows faster implementation of new technologies and quicker delivery of product to market. Regulation by safety codes prevents these machines from becoming safety and liability hazards.

The PBC for Elevators, ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7, is a joint American and Canadian standard that will have accreditation administered through both ANSI for the U.S. and the SCC for Canada.

The ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7 code covers the evaluation of design, construction, operation, inspection, testing, maintenance, alteration, and repair of systems, subsystems, components and / or functions, which deviate from the prescriptive codes ASME A17.1/CSA B44 of the following:

Hoisting and lowering mechanisms, equipped with a car that moves between one or more landings.

Hoisting and lowering mechanisms that are equipped with a car that serves two or more landings, and are restricted to the carrying of material by their size or limited access to the car.

Benefits of ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7
Acceptance of new technology, which is currently not covered by the prescriptive codes and will need to have approval from every Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) for each application, now can achieve certifications through an AECO, which will be a tool to get approvals from the various AHJs. New Technologies will be implemented and will be the measure for the following.

Elevator performance can be one of the most critical factors for selecting a location for business operations. Elevators allow employees, visitors, and deliveries to come and go with maximum speed, efficiency, comfort, and convenience. Additional cost-saving benefits include:

Energy Efficiency and Green Technology – new technologies including advanced motors, drives, and control software could reduce elevator energy up to 30-40%.
Space Savings – new system designs without elevator machine rooms, base control or top-mounted shaft controls to maximize space, or use of "double-decker" cars in one shaft space.
Speed/Capacity – the PBC allows manufacturers to use strong, lightweight synthetic or composite materials in construction, state-of-the-art computerized control devices, and evolutionary drive designs to move lifts, allowing for lighter and faster elevators.
Safety – PBC Code allows for manufacturers' compliance with Global Essential Safety Requirements (GESRs) and performance testing to avoid elimination of risks for new designs and to continue exemplary safety records.
Security – Addition of new destination-based control panels for password or swipe-card access to specific floors.

Elevators

If your company operates lifts or elevators, your company is also responsible for their safety.
A quality assurance program spanning the entire construction process helps builders, owners, and property developers observe all relevant quality standards and order specifications. This minimizes defects, malfunctions or failures, prevents unnecessary costs, and avoids personal injuries.

TÜV SÜD America helps your company live up to its responsibility!
TÜV SÜD America, a subsidiary of TÜV SÜD AG, has received accreditation from both ANSI and SCC as an Accredited Elevator Certification organization (AECO), and offers certification to ASME A17.7 /CSA B44.7, the new performance-based code (PBC) for elevators, which provides an objective and structured method for establishing design and product safety.

TÜV SÜD Industry Service GmbH is a Notified Body as defined in the Lift Directive, accredited for all safety components listed in Annex IV and recognized by the European Commission (Identification Number 0036).

As the only certification organization to currently hold both ANSI and SCC AECO accreditation, combined with TÜV SÜD America's parent company, TÜV SÜD AG, being a Notified Body for the EU Lift Directive, TÜV SÜD America is now in the unique position to better serve the certification needs of all major global markets from a single source.

As an AECO, TÜV SÜD America Inc. will help you gain acceptance of your product by the Authorities having Jurisdiction (AHJ) through certification of your product (elevator, subsystem, component or function) to the PBC ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7. Your comprehensive Risk Assessment, which ensures that the applicable GESRs have been met, will then be evaluated by TÜV SÜD America to ensure that the process has been appropriately executed, the risk identification and mitigation process is complete, safety parameters have been applied as needed, and residual risks have been addressed.

Upon completion of the PBC compliance review, and after careful evaluation of the Code Compliance Documents (CCD), TÜV SÜD America will issue a Certificate of Conformance. TÜV SÜD America will then audit the process both in an initial factory inspection as well as ongoing surveillances to verify that the certified equipment is being manufactured and installed to the requirements defined in the CCD.

TÜV SÜD's test laboratory experts carry out EC Type Examination in line with the Lift Directive, Annex V/A (Module B) of all safety components listed in Annex IV/A.

For more information, contact us.