scope:

INTRODUCTION

Personal Safety

The inspector should be suitably clothed before starting the elevator inspection. A one-piece suit of overalls is probably the most desirable. Keep buttons, particularly cuff buttons, buttoned. When actually engaged in making the inspection the inspector should at all times watch for moving objects, or if on the car, for hoistway projections such as beams, etc. When on top of the car the overhead clearance should be most carefully watched. A number of fatal accidents have been caused by operators running cars into overhead structures, while inspectors were on top of the cars. Similarly, when working in the pit, the inspector should watch the car carefully and 4lso beware of descending counterweights of the car being inspected and of those in adjoining hoistways. When inspecting electrical parts he should be sure that the main switch is open so that all parts are dead

Duties of Inspectors

It is not the function or duty of inspectors to determine the cause of failure of any piece of apparatus or to make any repairs or adjustments to the apparatus. The duty of inspectors is to determine whether the installation is in a safe operating condition, whether it meets the requirements of the legal elevator code and whether the safeguards required function correctly as required by such code. If they do not, it is their duty to report the conditions as found. Where, in their opinion, the condition of the apparatus as shown by the inspection warrants it, inspectors should recommend to the proper authorities the immediate shutting down of the elevators until the necessary repairs or adjustments have been made.

Arrangement for Inspection

When an inspection of pressure tanks, cylinders, pistons, and similar hydraulic equipment is to be made, the inspecting authorities should, wherever possible, make arrangements with the owner to drain the water from such equipment and remove all hand-holes, man-holes, piston heads, and s)milar parts, prior to the time set for the inspection. Where hydraulic pressure tanks are to be internally inspected, the owner or person responsible for the maintenance of the elevator should arrange to have a qualified man make such an inspection, unless the state, municipal, or casualty inspection department is prepared to furnish such inspection.

New Codes

Part I of the Manual is intended primarily as a guide to the periodic routine inspections of elevators. Certain paragraphs, where they apply, should be used in connection with the initial or data inspection of new elevators covered by Part II. Inasmuch as each· city and state code varies in regard to the retroactive features (that is, which rules apply to elevators installed previous to the adoption of the legal code), the inspector will, in each case, have to determine by reference to the effective code what items of the Manual may be applied to the existing elevators on such inspections.

Part II of the Manual applies only to the initial or data inspection of new eleva tors installed after the adoption of the legal code, except where such code itself specifically calls for the application of any of the tests· and inspections covered by this part of the Manual to existing elevators (that is, those installed before the adoption of the legal code)