General
The Safety Code for Elevators is essentially the same for both the United States and Canada. However, because it is often implemented differently from one jurisdiction to the next, the only practical way of knowing the requirements for each city is to ask the local Elevator Inspection Branch or Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) what version of the Code is presently being enforced. Additional requirements may also be in effect in order to accommodate the handicapped.
FCC and ACTA Supplier's Declaration of Conformity: (Click here for SDoC)
Elevator Safety Code Synopsis
A17.1-2007 / B44-07 (and newer)
(Click here for 2007 PDF version)
(Click here for 2009 PDF version)
- All elevators must have a means of communicating with or signaling to authorized personnel.
- For any elevator that travels more than 60', there must be an additional means provided so that rescue personnel can communicate from a point within the building to the individual elevators. (This is the function of the Webb LS-250 Rescue Station).
- Emergency telephones must be operable for 4 hours in the event of a power loss in the building.
- Elevators with remote machine and/or control rooms are required to provide a permanent means of communication between the elevator car and the remote machine room. (This is the function of the Webb MR-250 Machine Room Station)
- A light must activate in the elevator to indicate when the emergency call has been answered.
- The telephone must be capable of automatically providing the location of the caller.
- Handset telephones are no longer permitted.
- Calling into elevator cabs from the on-site rescue station shall override any existing conversation to the outside of the building. For this reason, many elevator authorities have ruled that separate intercom and telephone systems are no longer permissable.
- Calls from the elevator phone must not disconnect until the operator chooses to end the call or the operator chooses not to extend the call when the elevator phone call timer announces that the call time is about to expire. Also, the elevator phone must be able to provide the exact location of the caller to the operator upon demand.
- The car communicating device shall verify the phone line operability at least daily. If not operational then provide audible and intermittently illuminated visual alarm signals near the fire recall switch for each car group controlled by a fire recall switch. The alarm can be silenced only by authorized personnel. Label: Elevator Communications Failure.
Note: Some common brands of phones do not comply with all of these newer requirements.
Alterations (Modernizations)
When a modernization project is being done in a building, the preceding communication standards apply in any of the following situations:
- There is a change in type of service from freight to passenger, or passenger to freight. (section 8.7.2.16.1)
- There is a change in the type of motion control. (section 8.7.2.27.5)
- There is a change in the operation control. (section 8.7.2.27.6)
- There is an alteration being made to the emergency telephone equipment. (section 8.7.2.28)