scope:

Foreword

Present ASME A17.1/CSA B44 Code requirements provide a framework for standards of safety for current products whose technologies have become state-of-the-art and commonplace. The ASME A17 and CSA B44 Committees have demonstrated responsiveness to prepare new requirements to cover newly introduced designs and technologies throughout their long histories, which span over 80 years.

The ASME A17 and CSA B44 Code Committees will continue their longstanding policies of revising Codes to keep them abreast of developments in the industry. The ASME A17 and CSA B44 Committees have responded to new developments throughout their histories, as evidenced by the inclusion of requirements to recognize technological advances (such as increased car speeds, solid state electronic devices, observation elevators, installation of counterweights in separate hoistways, material lifts and dumbwaiters with automatic transfer devices, special purpose personnel elevators, inclined elevators, elevators used for construction, limited-use/limited-application elevators, and shipboard elevators).

In a progressive elevator industry, designs and products emerge that are not specifically covered in the ASME A17.1/CSA B44 Code. Since Code requirements cannot anticipate future development and innovation in the elevator industry, they are written to reflect state-of-the-art technologies following introduction. Accordingly, products will be introduced prior to requirements being adopted into the ASME A17.1/CSA B44 Code.

With new materials and processes in mechanical, structural, electronic, and optics areas, in addition to analytical capabilities now available, the need for flexibility to introduce products resulting from maturing technical developments is heightened. The ASME A17.1 and CSA B44 Code Committees realized long ago that the time gap between the introduction of new technologies and introduction of relevant specific requirements in the Codes could hinder progress. Therefore, they introduced long-standing provisions, in Section 1.2, that suggest that Authorities Having Jurisdiction or Regulatory Authorities, hereafter referred to as AHJ, should recognize new systems, methods, or devices provided that they assure safety equivalent to that required by the Codes. However, the lack of a structured method for assessment of equivalency has proven to be a problem in the practical implementation of Section 1.2 provisions.

This new performance-based Code, ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7, provides an objective and structured method for establishing design and product safety. It is in the public interest that safe designs and products be introduced into the marketplace. Safeguards must be provided and documentation must be presented to show that designs and products are equivalent or superior in quality, strength, stability, fire resistance, effectiveness, durability, and safety to that intended by the ASME A17.1/CSA B44 Code. This structured method also provides a consistent means of demonstrating safety of designs and products, which will be helpful to AHJ.