otis pie plate selector

I know a few years back they make a solid state overlay for these selectors. My supervisor is now saying the company that made these are out of business? any body have any ideas?

That would be the MRS 11 overlay, they are out of business- Elevator Components

You can ask Unitec. They still sell the parts for the selectors as well as SEES and Adams.

Why not MOD?

Its unfortunate that EC went out of business as the MRF worked well.

I know Electrodyn was considering designing one after EC shut down. Maybe check with them.

thanks everyone for the responses, i would love to just rebuild these i have done it before and really think that it is a great device. the issue is the company(s) don't want to cover or limit what they will cover in repair and rebuilding these. and the customer does not want to pay to have it repaired/replaced/repaired. so caught between a customer that wants the elevator running and a supervisor that wants the callback cutdown.!? i will check into Electrodyn and see what they have going on.

Sounds like a full service agreement. Maybe your Supervisor can work his magic and charm the customer into meeting his expectations!

Talked to Jim at Electrodyne last week and they are not on line with the new selector.

I would be curious if Claddagh would be willing to create a replacement unit?

If you look at the average age of the 6850, not mention the 140M, it's hard to justify the R&D money to develope a retrofit. Most owners of such equipment will opt for a full Mod. The customer needs to ask themselves: If I spend say 20 grand on a selector upgrade, the rest of my elevator is 40+ years old, why not spring for the complete package. If I fix the selector, what other obsolete devices will fail?

E311 hit the nail on the head...

E311 & EMan,

I agree with you on your point about "why put good money into old equipment. We have several otis units with these selectors. I have found if you maintain them they provide reliable service for many years.

I will say this, we recommended to MOD one of these units to a customer. The customer explained to me their reasoning why they don't wish to MOD. He explained if he took a loan out for 100k for 15 years the term would have paid 42000.00 in interest. He explained he would rather pay 20k now and gamble that at the end of the next 15 years he won't come close to spending more then the 120000.00 he would have paid out on a loan.

It's now been 8 years. All I can say is I'm glad I didn't make a bet that he was wrong...

He's using static reasoning, thats a huge mistake. What if someone stumbled due to misleveling and broke an arm? That would throw the equation off- he needs to understand that elevators do not sucumb to static reasoning, they are very dynamic I had a customer that swore he didnt need a reverse phase relay on a 1925' drum freight car, "why that elevator has run great for years, you're just try to get money out of me!"- is what he told me. Two years later, half of a city block burned and I got pulled into the litigation. The customer lied and said he was never advised of this device. Be carful out there!

Ah....so the customer breaks down...opens his wallet and purchases the top of the line full mod just like you recommended. Controller,machine,fixtures...everything top notch! ^ months later the car freewheels into the overhead full speed with passengers! What do you tell the customer in that meeting the next day? Just playing Devil's Advocate! I'm not disagreeing with you just stating you never know when an accident will occur and the customer has to make the decision on his piece of equipment. We only maintain it we don't own it. In closing "Why doesn't the Codes take care of these problems" In 1927 there were no seatbelts laws yet if you drive an older car that vintage and get pulled over you better be wearing a seatbelt or you get a ticket? That's the Law!

E311,

Although you make a compelling argument, the customer still has control of what they do with their equipment. We can only try and use our knowledge, experience and reasoning to try and influence their decision. Our last choice is to walk away.

Thank you for sharing your experience in regards to the reverse phase relay. Even if you can provide the proper documentation to contradict their claim! You still get the full experience of the law suit. Yes, I've shared that same road.

Good point Halfpick! Even new equipment fails.

That is why it is so important to document everything! Always send a quote for a repair or upgrade in writing. That way if the customer declines a needed repair or safety upgrade you can cover your butt.

In Aus, we are different in that as long as the equipment is supplied in original spec it is legal(as long as its safe of course). I find it hard that every time, no matter what equipment it is, that the regs change, this equipment has to be modified potentially at the customers cost, which could be huge. It nearly would cancel all old equipment beyond 10 years from being legal. Does this suggest that the original design is very flawed? Not sure. But we do have a system here which is essentially called a risk assessment(mainly to employees and passengers) which go towards safety concerns generally. I have noted that floors levels as an eg, is a massive priority in the US, but it isn't that bad here, which is good as pure floors levs are tough to consistantly achieve(within specs +/-). I have worked on o/h cranes before(kone), and an eg was the new code stated that you didn't have to have a hook latch, but must provision to do so. However what we did was suggest as a 'risk assessment' that if a load was lost due to a sling 'bouncing' off, then potential load damage/human injury could occur and thus the use of a latch should still be used. This was our way around the original manufacture law.

If you ever need parts for these old units check out Master Elevator Components they have a lot of parts for the 1940's and before.

www.masterelevator.net