Specialist Lift and Escalator Consulting Engineers
Glossary
Glossary of technical terms.
| Asset Management | Ongoing management of Client lift and/or escalator portfolios including forward cost planning. |
| Buffer | A device designed to stop a descending car or counterweight beyond its normal limit of travel by storing or by absorbing and dissipating the kinetic energy of the car or counterweight. |
| CAD (computer aided design) | A system where a digital computer carried out the tedious and time consuming aspects of an engineering design. |
| Capacity | Indicates the amount of weight a given elevator is able to support safely. |
| Car (Elevator) | The load-carrying unit, including its platform, frame, enclosure and car door or gate. |
| CDM Principle Designer | A nominated Consultant who will advise and assist the Client with their duties, co-ordinate health and safety aspects of design work and co-operate with others involved with the project, facilitate good communication between the client, designers and contractors, liaise with the principal contractor regarding ongoing design work, identify, collect and pass on pre-construction information; and prepare/update the health and safety file |
| Codes and Standards | The rules and regulations by which the lift industry is governed. |
| Commercial | Buildings in which people work (offices, stores, industrial warehouses). |
| Contractor | The company or person carrying out the work for the Client. |
| Controller | A device, or group of devices, which serves to control, in a predetermined manner, the apparatus to which it is connected. An electrical panel, which uses electro mechanical relays or a computer to control the operation of an elevator. |
| Conveyor | An endless moving belt for the movement of goods or people |
| Design | The planning that lays the basis for the works. |
| Disabled Access Equipment | Lifts intended exclusively for transporting disabled persons. They must be manufactured in accordance with the Machinery Directive. |
| Door Protective Device | Any type of device used with automatic power operated doors that detect obstructions to the normal closing of the elevator doors and either causes the doors to reopen or go into some other mode of operation, such as nudging. A safe edge, a safety astragal, a photoelectric device (safe ray), and electrostatic field device are examples of door protective devices. |
| Dumbwaiter | An elevator used for the vertical transportation of materials only and comprising a car whose dimensions are such as prevent the transportation of passenger, and which moves in guides, often situated beneath a counter or sited at counter top level. |
| Duplex | Two interconnected cars, sharing a common signalling system. |
| Engineer | A person who is capable of innovation and possesses graduate academic qualifications and subsequent responsible experience in the industry. |
| Elevator | Permanent lifting equipment serving two or more landing levels, provided with a car or platform for the transportation of passengers and / or goods, running at least partially in rigid guides either vertical or inclined to the vertical by less than 15 degrees. |
| Emergency Stop Switch | A hand operated switch in the car push button station, which, when thrown to the off position stops the elevator and prohibits it from running. |
| Escalator | A power driven endless moving stairway inclined at between 28 degrees and 35 degrees for the short range upward and downward transportation of passengers. |
| Expert Witness | A witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person. |
| Faceplate | The decorative cover which houses control devices such as position indicators, pushbuttons, key switches, etc. |
| Firefighting Lift | A lift which may be supplied with additional fire resistant protection, installed in a fire protected zone and designated to have controls that enable it to be used under the direct control of the firefighting services for emergency purposes. |
| Fireman's Lift | A lift, which may or may not be supplied with additional fire resistant protection, designated to have controls that enable it to be used under the direct control of the firefighting services for emergency purposes. |
| Forward Cost Plan | A plan identifying works required within an agreed period going forward (eg 5 years, 10 years) |
| Goods Lift | Lift designed primarily for transporting goods. As a rule, people may travel with the goods. |
| Institutional | Buildings in which people receive a service (hospitals, schools, universities, public buildings) |
| Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) | Measures of performance. |
| Landing | That portion of a floor, balcony, or platform used to receive and discharge |
| Levelling | The movement of an elevator toward the landing sill when it is within the levelling zone. When the word levelling is used, the inference is that the process of attaining a level stop or position (the platform level with the landing sill) is performed completely automatically. |
| Lift Monitoring | Ability to monitor the performance of lifts remotely. |
| Machine Room | The space in which the driving machine for an elevator or group of elevators, dumbwaiter, escalator or group of escalators is located. |
| Machine-room-less Lift | A vertical lift that requires no additional machine room. |
| Maintenance | The action of preservation without impairment or the keeping in being. |
| Maintenance Specification | Document detailing the core elements of the contract between customer and contractor including Key Performance Indicators and services to be included free of charge within the contract. |
| Modernisation | The process of improving an existing system by bringing it 'up to date'. |
| Moving walkway | A type of passenger carrying device on which passenger stand or walk, and in which the passenger carrying surface remains parallel to its direction of motion and uninterrupted. |
| OJEU | Official Journal of the European Union. |
| Passenger | Any person transported by a lift. |
| Passenger Lift | A lift primarily used to carry passengers other than the operator (if any). |
Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) |
Preventative maintenance scheduled to be performed at specified intervals of time or for specified numbers of operations. |
| Platform Lift | A lift that is fitted with a load-carrying unit in the form of a platform that can be driven on to. Used primarily for transporting disabled persons in wheelchairs and, possibly, another person. |
| Project Management | Planning, organising, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives |
| Residential | Buildings in which people live (houses, flats, hostels) |
| Retail | Buildings from which a product or service is sold. |
| Rucksack Lift | The name given to lifts which are only supported on one side. |
| Service Lift | A lift to be used exclusively for transporting goods. Unlike a goods lift it cannot transport people. |
| Skip-stop operation | Where a duplex pair of lifts in a building share a common lobby but one car serves even floors and one car serves odd floors. |
| Specifications | A detailed itemized description of the plans, materials, dimensions and all other requirements proposed for the installation of the equipment. |
| Stairlift | Lifts provided for persons with impaired mobility, which can be permanently or temporarily installed on a stairway, which provide a seat for the person to ride on. |
| Survey | Detailed site inspection of lift installations to assess required works against current codes and standards and client brief. |
| Traffic Analysis | Determination of the statistical characteristics of passenger movement (average passenger waiting and journey times, percentiles etc) in a lift an escalator system. |
| Vertical Rise | Vertical distance between the lowest and the highest landings of a lift. |
| Witness Test | Performance of functional and load tests against specifications contained in the Operating Manual. |
