Section 7.54. Landing doors and locking devices

(a) General. The shaftways of passenger elevators shall be equipped with landing doors. The main or lowest landing door of all elevators except automatic control, dual control, or double-button control elevators shall be provided with a removable service key by which the door may be opened when the car is at that landing. Doors at the lowest level and next to the lowest level of elevators located in adjacent or multiple shaftways in new installations except as noted in subsection (e) of this section, shall be equipped in such a manner that they may be opened, regardless of the location of the car, with a formed emergency key located under glass in the entryway or corridor on the lowest floor. Such elevators may have all landing doors so equipped. If an elevator is installed in a single shaftway, the emergency key shall open all shaftway doors. This rule also applies to existing installations when new landing doors are installed. A notice shall be placed on or over the enclosure for the key, to the effect that the key is not to be used except in case of emergency.

(b) Landing doors. The landing doors of passenger elevators shall conform to the following:

(1) Position. The landing doors of all passenger elevators shall have the inner side set as near flush with the interior walls of the shaftway as is con sistent with the proper operation of such doors.

(2) Doors. Swinging doors may be used at the shaftway entrances of automatic control elevators. Landing doors of the butterfly, or folding, and slide-swing types are permissible. The swinging panel arrangement shall be used only for emergency loads and not for passenger traffic. Biparting or vertical operating doors are not permitted on passenger elevators used exclusively for passenger service but may be installed on combination passenger and freight elevators as provided in § 7.37(d) (relating to combination elevators). Landing doors shall be at least 6 feet, 6 inches in height and shall be so constructed that when opened the opening does not have a width in excess of the opening of the elevator car, when the elevator car door or gate is in an open position.

(3) Construction of entrances. Landing entrances shall be securely attached to the walls of the shaftway and constructed of approved fire-resistive materials. Each door panel of such entrances shall be constructed to withstand a constant force of 250 pounds applied at right angles to, and approximately at the center of, the door panel without causing the door to be displaced, break, or be permanently deformed. When fireproof shaftway construction is required the door panels shall be of approved 1 1/2 hour fire-resistive construction, and shall bear certification to this effect from a recognized official testing laboratory. Such door panels shall be self-closing and kept normally closed. When transom panels are installed, they shall be of the same construction as the door panels. Where biparting or vertically opening doors are permitted, such entrances shall have a one hour certified fire-resistive test rating.

(4) New doors. New doors shall be provided if interlocks cannot be fitted to existing doors or if doors are in such condition as to prohibit the necessary changes or repairs being made. Existing hollow metal doors of existing shaftways meeting the intent of this provision may be reused upon approval by the Department.

(c) Operation—sliding doors. When horizontal sliding or rolling doors are used at the shaftway entrances of passenger elevators, they may be opened but shall not be closed by independent power, except when the mechanism employed has been approved by the Board. In such cases means shall be provided to permit the manual operation of the landing doors and car doors or gates from within the car in the event of failure of power. Kinetic energy and force limitations for power door operators used with horizontally sliding hoistway doors and horizontally sliding car tops or gates shall comply with Rule 112.4 of the ASA A17.1-1960.

(d) Locking devices. Elevators, except water or steam hydraulic passenger and freight elevators that are now in use or that may hereafter be constructed for the carriage of passengers, shall have placed on them or attached to them an automatic locking device, subject to the following:

(1) Locking devices shall be of the mechanical or electro-mechanical type, designed and constructed so as to secure the elevator car in the stop position or place the power of controlling the elevator beyond the control of the attendant while any gate or door at the landing which is used for entrance to the car is open and unsecured.

(2) The shaftway doors of hydraulic elevators shall be provided with an approved electro-mechanical locking device. On maintained-pressure hydraulic elevators it shall operate in conjunction with an approved, normally closed, electrical valve operating system.

(3) Locking devices shall be approved before use. No locking device of any kind other than an approved type is permitted on any hoistway door.

(4) Locking devices shall be such that they are not affected by ordinary deviation from true alignment of either the car or the landing doors and shall not project into the shaftway to such an extent as to create a hazard.

(5) On elevators installed subsequent to December 15, 1924, the operation of locking devices shall not cause the unlocking of the landing door as the car passes the landings with the controller in the ‘‘on’’ position.

(6) Each locking device installed in this Commonwealth shall be stamped or otherwise have irremovably placed thereon a type or model number which shall correspond to the type model number listed with the Department when such device was approved, and no change shall be made in the design of approved locking devices unless the Board is notified and agrees to such change.

(7) Interlocks using hoistway door-closer arms as a door-locking device shall conform to the following:

(i) Interlocks shall be so designed, installed, and adjusted that the making of the electric contact to permit operation of the driving machine will occur only when the door arms are in such a position as to prevent the manual opening of a closed hoistway door, from the landing side, except with a formed emergency key.

(ii) During the door-closing operation, means shall be provided for a substantial latitude in the relation between the mechanical lock of the door-closer arms, and the making of the electric contact, by auxiliary means, either by overtravel of door arms below horizontal, or other comparably approved means to prevent misadjustment and to provide adequate contact wiping action, satisfactory contact pressure, and reliable operation.

(iii) The design shall be such that the relationship between the locked position of the door arms and the making of the electric contact may not be readily misadjusted or changed, and will maintain proper adjustment between the mechanical lock and electric contact.

(iv) Interlocks using door-closer arms as a mechanical locking device are not permitted.

(v) Interlocks not conforming with these requirements may be submitted to the Board for special approval.

(8) When springs are used in locking devices to create and maintain a condition of safety, they shall be of such strength as to insure against a hazardous condition through breakage or misplacement.

(9) If the locking device is so constructed that it prevents the operation of the car due to the opening of any shaftway door or car gate other than the one at which the car may be standing, there may be an approved emergency release switch located in the car. Such emergency release, if furnished, shall be under glass cover. When actuated, such device will permit the operation of the car without regard to the position of the doors. Such a release shall be so constructed and installed that in order to allow the car to be moved in the event of emergency, it will be necessary to break the glass and hold the release in the operating position. The design of this device shall be such that it cannot be tampered with or plugged in the operating position. Its use shall be confined only to emergencies and a sign to this effect together with instructions for the proper use of the device shall be posted adjacent thereto. Inching buttons may, however, be used for the operation of elevators at creeping speed with landing door open provided such inching buttons will move the car only in a direction towards the landing, and are limited to a zone nine inches above or below the landing. Emergency release switches shall not be used on any elevators controlled from a landing. An emergency release switch is intended to release both car gates and landing doors.

(e) Emergency entrances. Each elevator operating in a single blind shaftway shall have emergency entrances provided in the blind portion of the shaftway. Such emergency entrances shall be provided at every third floor, but not over 36 feet apart, to permit access to the elevator in the blind portion of the shaftway. Such emergency entrances shall be at least 30 inches wide, 48 inches high, easily accessible, and free from obstructions. Such doors shall also be provided with a contact and a lock approved for the purpose. The special key used to operate such locks from the corridor side shall open all emergency entrances and shall be kept behind a break glass cover in the entry way or corridor at the main or street floor, and marked for emergency entrances in the blind shaftway.

The provisions of this § 7.54 amended through September 23, 1977, 7 Pa.B. 2696. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (31543) through (31545), (8067), and (17297).

Notation

Cross References

This section cited in 34 Pa. Code § 7.17 (relating to prohibited installations); 34 Pa. Code § 7.37 (relating to combination elevators); 34 Pa. Code § 7.71 (relating to conflicts); 34 Pa. Code § 7.149 (relating to hoistway doors); and 34 Pa. Code § 7.189 (relating to hoistway doors).