CJA General Operating Information

General Controls, Pushbutton Stations inside Elevator

A typical modern passenger elevator will have:

• Space to stand in, guardrails, seating cushion (luxury)

• Overload sensor—prevents the elevator from moving until excess load has been removed.
It may trigger a voice prompt or buzzer alarm. This may also trigger a "full car" indicator,
indicating the car's inability to accept more passengers until some are unloaded.
• Electric fans or air conditioning units to enhance circulation and comfort.
• Call buttons to choose a floor. Some of these may be key switches (to control access). In
some elevators, certain floors are inaccessible unless one swipes a security card or enters
a passcode (or both). In the United States and other countries, call button text and icons
are raised to allow blind users to operate the elevator; many have Braille text besides.
• A set of doors kept locked on each floor to prevent unintentional access into the elevator
shaft by the unsuspecting individual. The door is unlocked and opened by a machine
sitting on the roof of the car, which also drives the doors that travel with the car. Door
controls are provided to close immediately or reopen the doors. Objects in the path of the
moving doors will either be detected by sensors or physically activate a switch that
reopens the doors. Otherwise, the doors will close after a preset time.

• A stop switch (not allowed under British regulations) to halt the elevator while in motion
and often used to hold an elevator open while freight is loaded. Keeping an elevator
stopped for too long may trigger an alarm. Unless local codes require otherwise, this will
most likely be a key switch.

• An alarm button or switch, which passengers can use to signal that they have been
trapped in the elevator.

Some elevators may have one or more of the following:

• An elevator telephone, which can be used (in addition to the alarm) by a trapped
passenger to call for help.
• Hold button: This button delays the door closing timer, useful for loading freight and
hospital beds.
• Call cancellation: A destination floor may be deselected by double clicking.
• Access restriction by key switches, RFID reader, code keypad, hotel room card, etc..
• One or more additional sets of doors that can serve different floor plans. For example, in
an elevated crosswalk setup, the front doors may open on the street level, and the rear
doors open on the crosswalk level.
• Security camera
• Plain walls or mirrored walls giving the illusion of larger area
• Glass windowpane providing a view of the building interior or onto the streets.
Other controls, which are generally inaccessible to the public (either because they are key
switches, or because they are kept behind a locked panel), include:

• Fireman's service, phase II key switch

• Switch to enable or disable the elevator.
• An inspector's switch, which places the elevator in inspection mode (this may be situated
on top of the elevator)
• Manual up/down controls for elevator technicians, to be used in inspection mode, for
example.
• An independent service/exclusive mode will prevent the car from answering to hall calls
and only arrive at floors selected via the panel. The door should stay open while parked
on a floor. This mode may be used for temporarily transporting goods.
• Attendant service mode.

External controls

Elevators are typically controlled from the outside by up and down buttons at each stop. When
pressed at a certain floor, the elevator arrives to pick up more passengers. If the particular
elevator is currently serving traffic in a certain direction, it will only answer hall calls in the same
direction unless there are no more calls beyond that floor.

In a group of two or more elevators, the call buttons may be linked to a central dispatch
computer, such that they illuminate and cancel together. This is done to ensure that only one car
is called at one time.

Key switches may be installed on the ground floor so that the elevator can be remotely switched
on or off from the outside.

Special operating modes 

Independent service is a special service mode found on most elevators. It is activated by a key
switch either inside the elevator itself or on a centralized control panel in the lobby. When an
elevator is placed on independent service, it will no longer respond to hall calls. (In a bank of
elevators, traffic is rerouted to the other elevators, while in a single elevator, the hall buttons are
disabled). The elevator will remain parked on a floor with its doors open until a floor is selected
and the door close button is held until the elevator starts to travel. Independent service is useful
when transporting large goods or moving groups of people between certain floors.

Inspection service is designed to provide access to the hoistway and car top for inspection and
maintenance purposes by qualified elevator mechanics. It is first activated by a key switch on the
car operating panel usually labeled 'Inspection', 'Car Top', 'Access Enable' or 'HWENAB'. When
this switch is activated the elevator will come to a stop if moving, car calls will be canceled (and
the buttons disabled), and hall calls will be assigned to other elevator cars in the group (or
canceled in a single elevator configuration). The elevator can now only be moved by the
corresponding 'Access' key switches, usually located at the top-most (to access the top of the car)
and bottom-most (to access the elevator pit) landings. The access key switches will bypass the
door lock circuit for the floor it is located on and allow the car to move at reduced inspection
speed with the hoistway door open. This speed can range from anywhere up to 60% of normal
operating speed on most controllers, and is usually defined by local safety codes.

Elevators have a car top inspection station that allows the car to be operated by a mechanic in
order to move it through the hoistway. Generally, there are three buttons - UP, RUN, and
DOWN. Both the RUN and a direction button must be held to move the car in that direction, and
the elevator will stop moving as soon as the buttons are released. Most other elevators have an
up/down toggle switch and a RUN button. The inspection panel also has standard power outlets
for work lamps and powered tools.

Fire Service - Depending on the location of the elevator, fire service code will vary state to state
and country to country. Fire service is usually split up into two modes: Phase One and Phase
Two. These are separate modes that the elevator can go into.

Phase one mode is activated by a corresponding smoke sensor or heat sensor in the building.
Once an alarm has been activated, the elevator will automatically go into phase one. The elevator
will wait an amount of time, then proceed to go into nudging mode to tell everyone the elevator
is leaving the floor. Once the elevator has left the floor, depending on where the alarm was set
off, the elevator will go to the Fire Recall Floor. However, if the alarm was activated on the fire
recall floor the elevator will have an alternate floor to recall to. When the elevator is recalled, it
proceeds to the recall floor and stops with its doors open. The elevator will no longer respond to
calls or move in any direction. Located on the fire recall floor is a fire service key switch. The
fire service key switch has the ability to turn fire service off, turn fire service on or to bypass fire
service. The only way to return the elevator to normal service is to switch it to bypass after the
alarms have reset.

Phase two mode can only be activated by a key switch located inside the elevator on the
centralized control panel. This mode was created for firefighters so that they may rescue people
from a burning building. The phase two key switch located on the COP has three positions: off,
on, and hold. By turning phase two on, the firefighter enables the car to move. However, like
independent service mode, the car will not respond to a car call unless the firefighter manually
pushes and holds the door close button. Once the elevator gets to the desired floor it will not
open its doors unless the firefighter holds the door open button. This is in case the floor is
burning and the firefighter can feel the heat and knows not to open the door. The firefighter must
hold door open until the door is completely opened. If for any reason the firefighter wishes to
leave the elevator, they will use the hold position on the key switch to make sure the elevator
remains at that floor. If the firefighter wishes to return to the recall floor, they simply turn the
key off and close the doors.

Fire Service is for emergency use only, although fire service keys can be purchased on eBay, and
other websites. Only trained responders should use this feature, and it is by no means a safe way
to escape from a burning building.
Code Blue Service - Commonly found in hospitals, Code Blue service allows an elevator to be
summoned to any floor for use in an emergency situation. Each floor will have a 'Code Blue'
recall key switch, and when activated, the elevator system will immediately select the elevator
car that can respond the fastest, regardless of direction of travel and passenger load. Passengers
inside the elevator will be notified with an alarm and indicator light to exit the elevator when the
doors open.

Once the elevator arrives at the floor, it will park with its doors open and the car buttons will be
disabled to prevent a passenger from taking control of the elevator. Medical personnel must then
activate the Code Blue key switch inside the car, select their floor and close the doors with the
door close button. The elevator will then travel non-stop to the selected floor, and will remain in
Code Blue service until switched off in the car. Some hospital elevators will feature a 'hold'
position on the Code Blue key switch (similar to fire service) which allows the elevator to remain
at a floor locked out of service until Code Blue is deactivated.

Emergency Power Operation - Many elevator installations now feature emergency power
systems which allow elevator use in blackout situations and prevent people from becoming
trapped in elevators.

For Traction elevators 

When power is lost in a traction elevator system, all elevators will initially come to a halt. One
by one, each car in the group will return to the lobby floor, open its doors and shut down. People
in the remaining elevators may see an indicator light or hear a voice announcement informing
them that the elevator will return to the lobby shortly. Once all cars have successfully returned,
the system will then automatically select one or more cars to be used for normal operations and
these cars will return to service. The car(s) selected to run under emergency power can be
manually overridden by a key or strip switch in the lobby. In order to help prevent entrapment,
when the system detects that it is running low on power, it will bring the running cars to the
lobby or nearest floor, open the doors and shut down.

For Hydraulic elevators 

In hydraulic elevator systems, emergency power will lower the elevators to the lowest landing
and open the doors to allow passengers to exit. The doors then close after an adjustable time
period and the car remains unusable until reset, usually by cycling the elevator main power
switch. Typically, due to the high current draw when starting the pump motor, hydraulic
elevators aren't run using standard emergency power systems. Buildings like hospitals and
nursing homes usually size their emergency generators to accommodate this draw. However, the
increasing use of current limiting motor starters, commonly known as "Soft-Start" contactors,
avoid much of this problem and the current draw of the pump motor is less of a limiting concern.