Mayr safety brakes meet the new elevator standards

With the EN 81-20 and EN 81-50, the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) has adopted two new standards for the design of elevators and the inspection of elevator components. These bindingly replace the familiar standards EN 81-1 and EN 81-2 as of 01 September 2017, and are intended to further increase the high safety standards which already exist for elevators – for both passengers and service personnel.

The new EN 81-20 standard refers to the specifications for the design of elevators and technical characteristics. EN 81-50 regulates how the inspection of elevators and individual components must be implemented. Therefore, amongst other things, the EN 81-50 places further requirements on the prototype inspection of the braking equipment as part of the ascending car overspeed protection means (ACOP) and against unintended car movement (UCM).

At the Interlift 2015, Mayr Power Transmission was the only brake manufacturer to already present type examination certification by the TÜV Süd (Technical Inspectorate) according to the 2014/33/EU Directive and the test basis EN 81-50 or EN 81-20 for all affected elevator brakes. The new 2014/33/EU Directive, which replaces the former 95/16/EC Directive, is to become binding for all manufacturers as of 20 April 2016.

As a result, Mayr Power Transmission is the first manufacturer on the market to provide safety brakes on the basis of this new standard. “As global market leader, we always have to be a step ahead of current developments,” emphasises Alexander Hutler, branch manager for elevators at Mayr Power Transmission in Mauerstetten. “Our customers don’t have to worry about a thing, because today our elevator brakes already fulfil the increased safety specifications contained in these latest standards. This provides planning reliability.”

100% quality controls

In order to always ensure as high a level of operating safety as possible in the elevators, all Mayr safety brakes are subject to careful quality controls. Therefore, prior to delivery, all brakes are extensively tested on calibrated test stands and function-relevant values are documented. An electronic database in which the measurement values together with the associated serial numbers of a product are stored ensures 100 per cent traceability in the process.

“The long-term experience and innumerable trials conducted by our Development and Testing Department at our Headquarters in Mauerstetten provide the basis of a conscientious service lifetime design under consideration of realistic and verified braking torque tolerances,” explains Alexander Hutler. “All brake components are safely dimensioned and manufactured only from high quality, known and proven materials.

“Our brakes are designed so that they reliably achieve the required nominal torque under all occurring operating conditions, irrespective of ambient temperature or humidity, for example”. Furthermore, Mayr elevator brakes are equipped with a patented noise damping system. On noise-optimised designs, switching noises are practically non-existent and lie below 50 dB(A) (acoustic pressure level measurement) in new condition.