Commercial Elevator
When choosing commercial custom elevators for a building or are deciding to equip a building with elevators, certain standards by elevator code ANSI A17.1 and Americans with Disabilities Act need to be met. The elevator industry, to meet these expectations, has established certain sizes for the weight requirements and space of a commercial elevator. A commercial elevator located in an apartment building, a hospital, and an office has a different purpose determined by the amount of people and type of objects being carried by the elevator, and for all commercial situations, certain guidelines need to be met for a commercial elevator to be installed. The minimum requirements by the ADA, however, for any commercial elevator are a minimum depth of 51 inches and width of 68 inches or 80 inches depending upon the door type of an elevator.
One type of commercial elevator is an office or residential elevator. Although in different types of buildings, the commercial elevator in an office or residential building is designed to carry people and, as a result, the design of this type of commercial elevator is more wide than deep. This structure is designed to keep passengers closer to doors and reduce transfer time on floors. However, aside from the internal dimensions of an office or residential commercial elevator, office elevators are typically designed with a weight capacity of 3500 pounds, while residential elevators only need to support 2500 pounds.
A commercial elevator is common in healthcare buildings but the standards for a healthcare commercial elevator are slightly different from those for a commercial elevator used in residential and office buildings. The elevators cars in a healthcare commercial elevator need to be larger to accommodate patients, staff members, and equipment being transported between floors of a hospital. Because a healthcare commercial elevator needs to be able to hold a combination of patients, staff, and monitoring equipment, a commercial elevator in a healthcare building must be able to hold up to 6000 pounds.
To summarize the exact standards for design of various commercial elevator types, the specific commercial elevator standards are: Office building, hospital passenger, and hotel elevators must be 6’8” wide and 5’5” deep, with a weight capacity of 3500 pounds; residential commercial elevators must be 6’8” wide and 4’3” deep, with a weight capacity of 2500 pounds; service elevators should be 5’4” wide and 8’5” deep, with a weight capacity of 4500 pounds; and hospital vehicle elevators must be 5’9” wide by 10 feet deep, with a weight capacity of 6000 pounds. Once the standards for a specific commercial elevator have been established, the designing aspect of a custom commercial elevator can begin.