Regretfully, California does not enforce the skirt index requirements of ASME A17.1
California does, however enforce escalator comb impact swtich settings and vertical up lift of comb teeth that is frequently found on escalators that were typically installed after 1992.
First time I ever saw you, you were peeking in on my job in Garden Grove! I was wiring a cop, and a face appeared between the doors. I said, "Hmm, this guys is friendly enough, but I just can't figure out why he's here!" Hah hah!
Now, of course, I recognize that I was visited by royalty! 8^)
My CIVL SD should be here in a day or so. Think I should practice with it, before meeting the State inspector? Or is it slam-dunk easy?
I have the CIVL SD on the way. It does vertical combplate force, horizontal combplate force, and skirt deflection. All three in one.
I'm told the older model used a scale, but the newer one uses load cells. The weight dropped from 80 pounds, to 50 pounds.
He also made it four inches longer, so it will work on moving walks. (Some? All?...idk...)
Here's a YT video of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnwpRbc7-k0
Feel free to call me 866 659 2227
Today finds me in Fresno CA.
Robert Krieger
Robert Krieger
Thanks for taking your time to help me with the StopLoss escalator tool. It was great to meet with you, and your associate Brain.
We tried it out today, and noticed a couple of things.
1. When doing the horizontal combplate check, the combplate MUST be installed. That's because, if the combplate is first removed, the distance from the combplate mounting panel surface, (this slides fore and aft) to the stationary part of the floor plate is considerably shorter with the combplate itself having been removed. This allows the CIVL SD tester mechanism to retract far enough to bend the load sensor mounting plate against the testers' frame. So, we had to take an old combplate, remove the teeth, and install it temporarily, where the CIVL SD tester would be mounted. (Center, left and right sides) This "stretches" the telescoping mechanism enough, where the CIVL SD testers' load cell mounting plate is clear of the tester mechanism frame. I suspect that the Kone escalator is relatively shorter in this axis than some others, and maybe that's why this anomaly occured. It's really no problem, and in fact, making a temporary combplate for testing purposes, (sans teeth), makes for a more accurate vertical test.
2. In the vertical deflection test, if the combplate is removed first to accomodate the foot of the tester, this results in the testing force being applied about 1/3 closer to the combplate panel "pivot", (as compared to the edge of the combplate itself, where the code says the force shall be measured), which then requires maybe 1/3 more force to actuate the deflection switches. If done this way, then much more force is required to trip the vertical deflection switches, far in excess of the 150 ftlbs maximum allowed. If one were to try and adjust the switches, or deflection return springs, based on this erroneous placement of the tester foot, then the actual resultant tripping force applied at the edge of the comb plate teeth would be far less than, say, 150 ftlbs, which is in itself ok, except that now the switches are "trigger happy", tripping at far lower actual ft lbs than allowed, and this will result in intermittant false tripping.
To get a more accurate reading on the vertical deflection, the testing force should be applied at the edge of the comb teeth. This is the condition that the unit actually runs in, with the comb plate installed. Earlier, we had stripped the teeth off of an old combplate, for the horizontal testing. This gave us a neat convenient place to put the vertical tester foot, right at the end of the combplate, where the force would actually be applied, if a shoe were to enter that area.
The extra distance between the combplate mounting panel pivot, and the edge of the combplate teeth, is like a "longer lever", providing more leverage to trip the vertical deflection switches. This is how the unit is built, when in its' running form, and the only way the force should be applied for testing.
Set up this way, the force apllied by the tester need only be a maximum of 150 ftlbs, and the springs and switches can be adjusted to achieve this. This is a truer adjustment, than compared to performing the testing with the combplate removed. Testing done w/o the complate would show that much more than the allowed 150 ftlbs is needed, even when the unit is adjusted properly. The shorter distance between the pivot and the force skews the values. And wrose yet, if one were to adjust the springs and switches this way, the force at the comb teeth would be far less than the 150 ftlbs allowed, resulting in needless troublecalls. (Ok, I guess I beat that to death.....)
We couldn't get our 150 ftlbs anyway... Had about 350 horizontal on each side, about 680 in the center, (all good, less than the max 400/800/400), but the vertical was like 200 ft lbs. Tried adjusting the switches, lubricating the sliding surfaces caked with corrosion and dirt, exercising the mechanism, to no avail. Next, we'll try adjusting the springs. Had to close down testing for today, ran out of time, jacking around with combplates. Now that we have a system, things will go quicker.