SUSTAINABILITY: Safety, accessibility and anti-vandalism protection for modern elevators

For elevators, escalators and other vertical transport equipments, the safe operating characteristic is essential, exerting a major impact on the quality of products and their sustainability. A true proof of the importance of this subject is given including by the approach of the harmonized European standard EN 81-80, known among experts under the name SNEL (Safety Norms for Existing Lifts). All companies operating in the area have implemented in a full manner the provisions of the regulation, existing a consensus regarding the impact of document provisions on the performance of elevators. SNEL is the result of efforts of a number of experts working in the industry, a significant contribution to the development having the public authorities in various European countries, representatives of third party test bodies, consumer organizations and insurance companies. EN 81-80 is a powerful and useful tool which, according to specialists, will exert an important long-term impact in most countries in Europe - and beyond. According to the opinions expressed by officials of the European Lifts Association (ELA), the EU is the region where operate the largest number of lifts worldwide and most of them are older than two decades. In terms of operating in the real life, the situation is very heterogeneous, but regardless of the issue, the members of ELA believe that an elevator put into operation in 1960, for example, can not be a reliable equipment in the twenty-first century. The need to implement SNEL is proven by the numerous accidents that occur annually in Europe, the current estimates indicating that the number of unreported incidents is at least 10 times bigger. Many of these hazards would have been avoided if the provisions of EN 81-80 were applied. It describes mainly the possible risks to 74 in association with a lift. Another big concern of the field is the accessibility (granting access mainly for the disabled persons). There are already many regions of the world where this issues are the subject of explicit legal provisions for over a decade.