The BOE publishes the new elevator safety regulations with a cost of 708 million in seven years

The Official State Gazette (BOE) has published this Saturday the ‘ITC AEM 1 Complementary Technical Instruction for Elevators’, which regulates their commissioning, modification, maintenance and inspection, as well as increasing the safety of the existing elevator parkfor a cost of about 708 million euros to be addressed in seven years.

At the end of 2019, more than one million lifting devices were registered in Spain. Of them, around 400,000 have been in service today for more than 30 years.

“This entire panorama requires the adaptation of current regulations regarding industrial safety of elevators,” highlighted the Government after approving the regulations in the Council of Ministers held on April 2.

Therefore, the standard includes a series of improvements to be implemented throughout the elevator park: improved leveling, detection on doors with curtains not only by spot beam, to prevent entrapment by the car doors or to protect the user against uncontrolled upward movements of the car and uncontrolled movements of the car at rest and open doors.

In addition, other measures present in the regulations are bidirectional communication in the cabin, the replacement of wooden or cylindrical guides, the implementation of load control devices or the modernization of the counterweight, so that “the weights do not come out of the guide, as long as they are not historic elevators.

For the commissioning of the elevators will be presented by the owner or representative, before the competent body of the autonomous community, the following documentation: technical sheet of the installation, CE declaration of conformity, operating manual, maintenance contract and favorable initial inspection certificate.

Periodic installations

According to the text published in the BOE, the standard defines the responsibilities of the owner of the installation and the maintenance companies. Inspections may be: initial, periodic, after modification or after accident.

In this sense, Periodic inspections will be every two years for industrial buildings or public attendance, every four years for residential buildings with more than 20 homes or more than four floors; and the rest every six years, while the type of defects (mild, serious, very serious) and their consequences are detailed (the elevator may be out of service until corrected).

Finally, the ‘ITC AEM Complementary Technical Instruction 1 for Elevators’ will come into force on July 1.