The idea of the Timeout jumper is not to lessen any current jumper safety standards but to help end jumper left behind accidents. It is already against code and company safety procedures to leave ANY jumper on a elevator. The problem is some jumpers are forgotten putting mechanics and the riding public in harms way. So how can you tell if a jumper was forgotten or left behind on purpose? Well if it is a Timeout Jumper it will open up and become harmless. The same cannot be said for our current jumpers. As far as the Timeout Jumper failing to open. Well what if one in a million times the Timeout jumper completly 100 % fails we are left with what we have right now a jumper that must be removed by a human to activate the original circuitry. Thats an 999,999 improvement in my book and I will take those odds everyday. I suggest that when you set the time on the jumper that you set it for a little more time that is left in your day I have been in this business a long time and have never heard of anyone forgetting to go home. Thanks for all your questions and comments I try to learn and improve safety in our industry every chance I get. So I can help ensure everyone goes home to their families. I never want to run a raffle for a dead brothers spouse and children again.

Good Point....And he happens to be in the overhead of a single hydro at 2 in the morning.Wouldn't want to make that call! I really haven't looked into this very much...How much time can be selected. It must be adjustable?

Hey Dan... just saying I've never put a jumper on a car that is in normal group service and I'm always on inspection when it's jumping out a safety device or doorlock/gateswitch! I've been in a long time too. I've worked on equipment with no car top access and in California we do not have "Lunar Keys". You had to peg relays up to gain access to the car top. We didn't have an inspection switch in the controller...you had to peg it out! I'm not disregarding it's safety. I really have not seen one in California yet. Stay Safe and Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas too. The Timeout Jumper has an adjustable timer that can be controlled during a set up procedure so that just one push of a button will bring up your preset time. That could be 5 min or 1 hour its up to you. So then you hit the button more and your time will increase by that same amount. It also has a mode for ID# and your name or company name. So that all the current safety requirements are built in. Take a look at it on Wurtec.com I am not surprised to hear that you havent seen one. They have been on the market for about 2 years but they came out when the economy headed south. But I hope they will be written into mandatory use by company safety policy. It really is a win win game for mechanics, companys and building owners.

Im still not really convinced they are the solution to the problem...doesnt matter what time is programmed you are always bridging out something and whether its 5 mins or an hour the potential is still there to leave the bridge on for longer than is needed....I for one are so damn paranoid about leaving my bridges on I sometimes have stopped on the freeway to check if they are still all in their pouch.Our procedures are to leave the bag hanging on the motorroom door handle so at least it is usually the last thing you see as you leave the room.

This might be an allegory to the issue of jumpers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Coalinga_earthquake

In my personal life I went one year after the earthquake and spoke to the hospital personnel who were affected by the quake.

Potted plants in ceramic pots are like hand grenades and threw shrapnel of the pots. (Not a good idea in earthquake zone.)

One year after the earthquake, the nurses put up guards on the medications to prevent them from falling out in the next one. The clinical lab secured the blood bank refrigerator so it would not fall over (great idea) with webbing material like automobile seat belts.

Unbelievably, the engineering department and the time administration of the hospital did nothing, as one of the representative in the interview said 'doing something might give us a false since of security'.

So they did nothing.

As indicated in the article, this story was also swept under the carpet.

I truly believe that the time out jumper is safer than jumpers currently in use. It will cost money to buy, but much less than a lawsuit with injuries. I am old enough to remember the arguments against seat belts and yes, people still are telling us that smoking does not affect their health.

Let us as an industry take inspired, decisive, complete and pro-active action by making the time out jumper the only accepted jumper to use and avoid such incidents in the future.

I noted and can appreciate why the reference to jumpers on this job's reverse phase relays were removed. Too late, that baby was born and even an average insurance investigator will find out by deposition.

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert L Krieger Jr.

Sounds like a shady service man could make himself some easy overtime call backs with those jumpers if he put in the MLT circuits! lol

Merrt Christmas to all. And a happy and safe New Year. As I stated in the December issue of Elevator World Magzine I belive the jumper is the most dangerous tool assigned to a mechanic. And once installed only a person can uninstall one. That being said our industry and many others are dependant on jumpers for trouble shooting and testing. You cannot perform full load safety tests on inspection and in some cases not with the three jumpers suppled to employes. In the last 6 months or so on this web site alone there have been at least 3 incidents involving the use or misuse of jumpers. Imagine what the real numbers are world wide. Since this forum represents just a fraction of our industry.
Elevator companys spend millions of dollars every year safety training on jumper use alone. And millions more desinging new less jumper dependant controllers and this is great and will obviously save lives and prevent injurys.But with 80% of the elevators out there at least 15 years old.And the current economic climate we will be working on older jumper dependant elevators for decades to come.
The Timeout Jumper is the answer for jumper left behind incidents. If a jumper is left behind by accident it opens up and becomes harmless. If one is left behind on purpose to engineer over time call backs that mechanic does so at the risk that their ID is on the jumper and they will have to answer for why it was left where it was. I guess unscrupulous mechanics have been under sizeing fuses and loosening stud connections for years but would they do the same if their name had to be left behind? Any tool can be misused but if we can save lives and prevent injury to people and property with the use of new technology are we not compelled to do so.
Thank you Robert for your support.

Electronic ID..Does the software for that option come with every jumper! And will this device log all uses with dates and times of use!

Yes to the first question and no to the second question.

Thanks Dan...

We have a customer that will not let us work on exposed wires with live voltage unless we have the full protection suits, balaclava, face shield, both pairs of gloves on and reaching out to hold on to the hand of GOD while working near the exposed wires. That was aggravating to say the least. To get around this we used a 6 X 6 NEMA 4 junction box, we put 4 momentary two position toggle switches for jumping circuits, 1 momentary three position toggle switch for the up/down control,and one momentary push button on the side of the box as the "safe" control while using the up/down toggle. We then outfitted all of their controllers with a molex plug wired up to the respective terminals. Now when we have to perform any testing, we do not have to wear the protective clothing. Out of this experience we only have assigned momentary toggle switches to use as a JUMPER when we are trouble shooting ANY unit. In addition the above named box is the only way we perform tests on a unit. We just use alligator clips instead of the molex plug on units that are not under contract. As we take over units under contract we install the molex plug, so we can quick connect/disconnect the test box. While not foolproof the momentary toggle switch has gave us a little peace of mind about left behind jumpers.

If you loose a field this will happen, had this happen more than once. Had it happen with a 1000fpm car very ugly.

I remember at Library Square, back in 1989, and one adjustor was using the OMT to check his governor tripping speeds, just holding his finger on the button, then "WHAM", broken machine room slab, as the car top roller guides poked right through the concrete. Scary.