These guidelines are intended primarily for new construction. However, addition and alteration projects should meet these guidelines to the greatest extent possible.

Transportation systems should be selected on the basis of acceptable response and waiting time intervals. The intervals should be calculated from an analysis of car speed, traffic transfer time, door operation cycle, and other applicable system capacity factors. This section is not intended to cover all aspects of transportation system analysis or design, but rather to act as a standard for use by qualified transportation consultants.

The use of a transportation consultant is recommended to ensure that system selection and design are in compliance with all applicable codes, including but not limited to disability codes, building codes, all technical criteria, and the analysis of transportation needs, locations, and types.

The NIH will provide program factors that are required for computing traffic demand loads.

M.1 Elevators
M.2 Elevator Fire Protection
M.3 Dumbwaiters
M.4 Elevator Controls

M.1 Elevators

The location of elevators should be such that they are easily accessible and convenient to circulation routes. When additional elevator banks are provided, every effort should be made to locate them along the same major circulation paths that serve the existing elevators, where feasible. They shall be designed in accordance with all applicable codes. Ample area for circulation and waiting of patients, staff, visitors, and equipment shall be provided. Elevators shall be located to provide positive separation between passenger and service traffic flows and between patient, staff, and animal traffic flows. Service, research laboratory, and inpatient elevators should be separated from public elevators as much as possible.

Elevators should be located so that they will serve all floors that require service. This includes the basement, sub-basement, and mechanical floors as well as all of the occupied floors of the facility. In facilities that utilize interstitial floors and mechanical penthouses, at least one elevator shall stop on these floors to facilitate equipment maintenance and removal. Elevators shall not be placed over occupied spaces as this will require counterweight safeties and reinforced pits.

Elevators should be grouped in banks of adjacent cars or banks of cars facing each other. Where four or more cars are required within a group, cars should be placed in opposite banks, opening to a common lobby. For service and combined-use cars, two across are preferred, and not more than three in a row should be used. For passenger cars, three across are preferred, and not more than four in a row should be used.

Consideration should be given to the maximum walking distance from the vertical transportation service to the most distant function. This factor should be weighed along with the advantages of locating elevators near the center of the building and the advantage of elevator clustering. In general, the maximum walking distance to passenger and combineduse elevators should not exceed 61 m. A distance of 46 m is preferred. Service elevators should be planned to provide a maximum walking distance of 61 m. A distance of 52 m is preferred. Any decentralized banks and/or clustering of elevators should be planned to include at least two cars to maintain an acceptable dispatch interval between cars and to ensure continuity of service.

Elevators shall be selected and located to permit transportation of 10 percent of the anticipated visitor, staff, and ambulatory patient load within a 5 minute, two-way peak period. The number of elevators required should be selected on the basis of a 35 second response waiting time interval between elevators.

If one elevator would normally meet the requirements in the facility where elevator service is essential (such as facilities over two stories high), two elevators should be installed to ensure continuity of service. If financial limitations restrict the inclusion of a second elevator, as a minimum, a hoistway for a future elevator should be provided.

The possibility of changes in the occupancy type and/or reassignment of building areas that would result in a greater volume of passenger traffic should be investigated. When such possibilities exist, the structural framing shall be designed to permit future installation of additional elevator equipment that will be required to handle the potential increase in traffic volume.

Special conditions that must receive consideration in estimating elevator usage include cafeteria traffic, store traffic, dietary distribution and retrieval, transient traffic, visitor traffic, outpatient traffic, pharmacy, building management, central sterile, surgery, warehousing, grouping of elevators, external transport facilities, building entrances at more than one level, basement facilities, unusual interfloor traffic requirements, trash (if chutes are not used), lab equipment relocation, delivery of gas tanks, and animal rack movement (where elevators are required within or as access to the animal facility).

M.1.1 General Design Considerations

M.1.1.1 Codes: Elevators shall be designed in accordance with the latest edition of all applicable Federal, State, and local codes, including the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines, Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards, NFPA “National Electrical Code,” and ASME/ANSI A17.1, A17.2, A17.3, and A17.5. This includes designing to the appropriate rating/load classification for the intended application.

M.1.1.2 Hospitals: All elevators in hospitals, with the exception of elevators planned exclusively for use in outpatient clinics, shall have hospital-type cars with interior dimensions that accommodate a patient bed with attendants. Cars shall be at least 1.75 m wide by 2.75 m deep. Car doors shall be side-opening with a minimum clear opening size of 1.25 m wide by 2.15 m high. Elevators used exclusively for outpatient clinics may be designed as passenger elevators.

M.1.1.3 Research Laboratory and Animal Facility Buildings: Research laboratory and animal facility buildings will require a combination of passenger and freight elevators. At least one freight elevator should be located and sized to handle the transportation of materials from the loading dock to the final point of use. This includes access to all floor levels and interstitial levels within each building. The freight elevator requires floor containment to prevent contamination of the elevator shaft in the event of a chemical spill. One heavy-duty passenger elevator shall be designed as a freight elevator backup. Both should be readily accessible to the loading dock.

Material handling zones and marshalling areas on each floor should be designed adjacent to dedicated service elevators for the purpose of staging, dispensing, and disposing of laboratory and animal facility materials. See Biomedical Research Laboratories, Section: Space Descriptions, for additional information.

M.1.1.4 Elevator Speed and Type: Table M.1.1.4 indicates the parameters for the selection of elevator speed and type. Electric traction elevators are preferred for passenger, service, and hospital service applications. Hydraulic-powered elevators may be considered for use where vertical travel is less than 14 m or where overhead clearance is limited.

Table M.1.1.4 Elevator Speed and Type

Note 1: Consider separate high-rise and low-rise groups of passenger cars.

M.1.1.5 Elevator Lobbies and Groupings: Where four or more cars are required within a group, cars should be placed in opposite banks, opening into a common lobby. Where elevators are accessed from corridors, they should be located on one side of the corridor only and should be set back from the line of circulating corridors. Elevator ingress/egress should be from a distinct elevator lobby and not directly from a corridor. The lobby width between two banks of passenger elevators shall not be less than 3 600 mm or more than 4 200 mm. The lobby width between two banks of service elevators should not be less than 4 200 mm or more than 4 800 mm. Care should be taken to avoid creating dead-end lobbies in excess of life safety code requirements. Elevator lobbies generate noise and should be acoustically isolated from areas sensitive to noise in all buildings and hospital critical care areas. Egress stairs should be located adjacent to elevator lobbies when possible.

M.1.1.6 Elevator Functional Separation: Traffic patterns should be established to separate the various traffic types in an efficient, logical, safe, and secure manner, while maintaining levels of aseptic control consistent with the requirements of the facility. A positive separation of passenger and service elevators shall be provided. Separate “clean” and “soiled” material elevator facilities shall be provided where required.

M.1.1.7 Size and Number of Elevators: The size and number of elevators required for a given facility depend upon various local conditions such as the size, type, and location of the facility’s functional areas, the density of the population, the physical location of the elevator groupings, and so on. The elevator installation for a given facility shall be estimated on the basis of anticipated local conditions and quality of service.

The anticipated population density figures will be provided by the NIH and will be used for the purpose of designing the required transportation systems. However, in all cases, the vertical transportation requirements shall be planned for the total population that the facility could reasonably house rather than be based on a forecast of initial occupancy.

M.1.1.8 Maximum Traffic Peak: This is the maximum percentage of the total population on the floors served by the elevators that must be handled during any 5-minute period. This maximum traffic peak will vary with the type of functional areas and special conditions applicable to the facility. The computations for vertical transportation equipment shall be based on transporting 10 to 14 percent of those persons who move between floors during periods of maximum demand in 5 minutes. The peak values, together with the population density factor, should provide a reserve capacity adequate to maintain satisfactory service during periods when one elevator is shut down for repairs.

Where groups of elevators serving identical floors are required to be furnished in two or more locations for the purpose of providing convenience of use, the elevators shall provide a minimum carrying capacity of not less than 120 percent of the maximum traffic peak.

Passenger and service elevators shall have the capability to handle their maximum peak loads while providing a satisfactory interval. Capacity and speed shall be selected that will require the fewest elevators to handle the peak loads with an acceptable interval. Passenger elevators in a group should have an interval no greater than 45 seconds maximum. Service elevators in a group should have an interval no greater than 60 seconds maximum. For passenger elevators, except special outpatient elevators or other specialpurpose elevators, the most suitable car capacity is 1 800 kg. When separate service elevators are provided, they shall have a capacity of 2 300 kg.

M.1.1.9 Hoisting Machines: Geared hoisting machines shall be used for elevators in buildings of 10 stories or less. Gearless machines shall be used for elevators in all buildings of 11 floors or more. The placing of hoisting machines in basement machine rooms adjacent to the hoistway shall be limited to special cases where conditions do not permit the installation of overhead machines.

M.1.1.10 Limited-Rise Elevators: Oil-hydraulic and direct-plunger elevator equipment shall be considered for limited-rise (four stops, approximately 15 m rise) and low-speed elevators. The machine room and pump unit shall be located adjacent to the hoistway at the lowest landing. All hydraulic elevators shall have a Nordic starter for the pump motor. All hydraulic elevators shall be equipped with a scavenger pump to retrieve the waste oil.

The use of generator field or silicone-controlled rectifier (SCR) drive controls is appropriate for unlimited applications.

A single-wrap, geared-traction configuration shall be used for up to 1.8 m/s. A double-wrap or single-wrap, gearless-traction configuration shall be used with speeds of 2.0 m/s and greater. Roping shall be 1:1. Secondary sheaves shall be used with a secondary sheave area. All hydraulic elevators shall be equipped with emergency power outage car return controls.

M.1.1.11 Elevator Operation and Controls: Special control and medical emergency service shall be provided in areas serving surgery, intensive care, emergency, patient care, and dietary usage. Each elevator bank serving these areas shall be provided with keyoperated emergency switches for hospital priority service. Provide these switches at each landing. This switch will cause the closest available car to bypass other calls in response to an emergency call. An on-demand microprocessor system shall be provided for all elevator controls. Three or four car banks shall be controlled in group operation.

Controls shall operate properly with a 500 KHZ to 1 300 MHZ radio frequency signal, transmitted at a power level of not less than 100 watts effective radiated power (ERP) at a distance of 1 m. The equipment shall be provided with electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding within FCC guidelines. Noise level rating at the elevator equipment and its operation shall not exceed 80 dBa in the machine room, measured 1 m above the finished floor and 1 m from the equipment.

M.1.1.12 Elevator Capacity and Platform Design: Passenger elevators shall have 1 800 kg capacity and a platform 2 400 mm wide by 1 900 mm deep. Service and patient elevators shall have up to 1 800 kg capacity and a platform 1 100 mm wide by 2 600 mm deep. Service and patient elevators shall have up to 2 300 kg capacity and a platform 2 000 mm wide by 2 600 mm deep. Platform size is to be evaluated relative to the type of patient travel and equipment requirements.

The maximum size of vehicles or other loads and the maximum weight of portable laboratory, medical, or x-ray equipment should be determined before setting the elevator size and capacities. The maximum area allowed by the ASME/ANSI A17.1 Standard shall be used to develop the inside dimensions of car enclosures.

M.1.1.13 Elevator Cars: Car enclosures shall have no front and rear entrance or corner post, shall be of a single-entrance type, and shall be of manufacturer’s standard design unless modifications are dictated because of special project conditions. Cab design shall be detailed on the project drawings. Materials for elevator cabs should be selected to reflect the architectural character of the building. Car enclosures shall conform to ASME/ANSI A17.1.

M.1.1.14 Entrances: Passenger and service elevators shall have single-speed, centeropening doors. Two-speed, side-opening doors may be provided in hospitals with separate material handling systems. Door-closing time must comply with ASME requirements. All elevators shall be equipped with buttons to extend door-opening time, adjustable between 0 to 30 seconds. All elevator car doors shall be provided with infrared screen detectors. The
passenger elevator door width shall be
1 200 mm standard. Service elevators shall have a width of 1 200 mm standard; a
1 500 mm width is optional if required by the facility’s function.

Tamper-proof screws shall be used for all car and corridor fixture plates.

Stainless steel entranceways shall be provided for service and patient elevators. Raised lettering and other provisions required to ensure accessibility to the disabled shall be provided.

M.1.1.15 Signals: Hall pushbutton stations will be provided with call register LED lights and shall be Adam’s Survivor or Survivor Plus (as required in certain areas) series or approved equal. Hall lanterns with an audible signal shall be installed on all elevators. Hall position indicators shall be designed visible from each side. Hall position indicators shall be Central Elevator Electronics (CEE) designed on Adam Control Board for compatibility with Swift Futura Controllers. Car position indicators shall be installed in each car with floor designations, a floor directory signal, and direction arrows. Car operating panels shall use car register floor rectangular buttons and shall be engraved with building and elevator number. Car operating panels shall be Adam’s Survivor or Survivor Plus (as required in certain areas) series. A lobby control panel will be provided on elevator banks with two or more cars. Signal fixtures and gongs shall conform to the requirements of ASME/ANSI A17.1 for use by disabled persons.

M.1.1.16 Seismic Design: Seismic protection shall be provided where required.

M.1.1.17 Emergency Power Supply: An emergency power supply shall be provided per ASME/ANSI A17.1 and tailored to the needs of the building.

The equipment specified depends on the service demand and the equipment commercially available to meet that demand. Care should be exercised to avoid specifying noncompetitive methods in features of elevator dispatching and control operation.

M.1.1.18 Door Operation: Power door operation shall be provided for all elevators. The door opening shall be capable of opening doors at the rate of 0.9 m/s. This is a capability speed, with actual speed being adjusted to meet the requirements of the specific installation. The closing speed shall be set per ASME/ANSI A17.1. All power-operated doors shall be equipped with an automatic reopen device for passenger protection.

M.1.1.19 Elevator Car Enclosure: Car lighting will be either indirect or of the luminous ceiling type. Mechanical exhaust will be provided for elevator cars.

M.1.1.20 Hoist Machine: Geared and gearless hoisting machines should be located directly above the hoistway in a machine room where practical by design. For speeds up to 0.5 m/s, alternating current, a two-speed control system with a low-speed range from 0.15 to 0.2 m/s should be provided. For car speeds of 0.8 m/s and greater, a generator field control system shall be provided. The hoisting machine and its control system shall be capable of stopping the car floor level within plus or minus 5 mm of hoistway doorsills. It shall also be capable of correcting for car overtravel, undertravel, and rope stretch. Car stopping shall be automatic and independent of operating devices.

Hoistways shall be illuminated per ASME/ANSI A17.1.

M.1.1.21 Elevator Machine Rooms: Elevator machine rooms shall be large enough to install the elevator equipment, including space for controllers, safe clearances, equipment maintenance, and ventilation. They shall provide sight lines for technicians and shall meet code requirements. Clearances for control equipment shall be no less than required by the National Electrical Code and shall provide enough working space between the various items of equipment for maintenance purposes. It must be possible to remove the major equipment components of each elevator for repair without dismantling the components of an adjacent elevator. Minimum headroom shall be 2 300 mm.

Air conditioning will be provided in elevator machine rooms to maintain ambient temperatures above 15 °C and below 32 °C. Provide a minimum of 47 L/s exhaust. Filters shall be provided to remove dust.

All elevator machine rooms shall be electronically and acoustically isolated to prevent interference from building electronic equipment and objectionable noises. Elevator machine rooms shall be acoustically separated from all critical care areas and occupied rooms.

Elevator machine room access shall conform to ASME/ANSI A17.1.

Stairs should be provided for convenient access to machine rooms. Access to machine rooms should preferably not require passage across a roof or similar exposed area.

Geared and gearless machines and motor generator sets shall be mounted on vibrationand sound-isolating devices. These isolating devices, when required, shall conform with seismic design requirements. Trapdoors and hoisting beams shall be installed in all machine rooms to facilitate maintenance and removal of equipment for repairs.

Adequate lighting shall be provided to ensure proper illumination in the front and rear of all controllers, on supervisory and selector panels, and over each hoisting machine. Convenience outlets shall be provided for each elevator area within the machine room.

Access doors to secondary levels shall be “B” label and a minimum of 760 mm wide by 1 100 mm high. Each door shall be of the self-closing, self-locking type and shall have a cylinder lock that requires a key for entry only. Stairway and ladders to access doors shall be installed in compliance with ASME/ANSI A17.1.

M.1.1.22 Dedicated Elevators: Dedicated elevators may be considered for transportation of patients, staff, or material between two distinct points when the service is required to satisfy critical functional relationships that may not be satisfied by locating departments adjacent to each other. An example of such a critical relationship is the location of the surgical suite in relation to the intensive care unit. The controls of dedicated elevators shall prevent the frequent use of the elevators for other purposes.

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M.2 Elevator Fire Protection

See General Design Guidelines, Section: Fire Protection, for all elevator fire protection requirements.

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M.3 Dumbwaiters

M.3.1 Codes: Dumbwaiters shall be designed in accordance with the latest edition of all applicable Federal, State, and local codes, including ASME/ANSI A17.1; electrical Transportations M. 10 Spring 2003 equipment and wiring with NFPA Standard 70, National Electrical Code; and hoistway doors with NFPA Standard 252, Fire Test of Door Assemblies. Dumb-waiters shall not be located over occupied spaces as this will require counterweight safeties and reinforced pits.

M.3.2 Capacity and Speed: The dumbwaiter capacity shall not exceed 225 kg, and its area shall not exceed 0.8 m2. Speeds of dumbwaiters serving three to four floors shall be 0.5 m/s; up to six floors, 0.8 m/s; and seven or more floors, 1.5 m/s.

M.3.3 Operation: The dumbwaiter shall be operated by means of dispatch and return program controls at the central station. Automation operations shall include cart loading and unloading transfer features, car and hoistway doors, car-to-floor leveling, and car return to central station.

M.3.4 Signals: A combination position indicator and hall lantern with gong shall be located above the entrance unit at the central station. A bank of buttons for dispatching the dumbwaiter to other floors shall be provided at the front opening of the central station. Each central station dispatching button fixture shall have an “In Use” and “Malfunction” signal light and a reset button for the automatic transfer equipment. Hoistway openings at floors other than the central station shall have call buttons with hall-registration lights, cart-return lights, and remote-hall arrival lights with gongs located over entrance units.

M.3.5 Intercommunication System: A dedicated automatic intercom system shall be provided, including a master station at each floor served by the dumbwaiter.

M.3.6 Cars: The dumbwaiter car enclosure shall be stainless steel, 760 mm wide, 1 100 mm deep, and 1 500 mm high. Stainless steel, vertical-sliding bi-parting car doors shall be provided at each car entrance.

M.3.7 Isolation of Material Handling and Transportation Systems: Chutes, pneumatic tubes, and vertical conveyors shall not be located adjacent to any acoustically sensitive space and shall be resiliently isolated from the building structure at each floor penetration by means of rubber-in-shear or glass-fiber isolators providing a minimum static deflection of 10 mm. The exterior of each trash chute and large pneumatic tube shall be coated with a viscoelastic, vibration-damping compound or other damping material.

Wherever possible, other vertical and horizontal system runs, such as pneumatic tubes, conveyors, and monorails, shall not be located adjacent to, over, or under any acoustically sensitive space. They shall be isolated from the building structure by resilient hangers, isolated support traps, resilient pads, or trapeze hangers and shall have no direct physical connection with the finished ceiling system of the space below. If the horizontal runs are
routed over acoustically sensitive spaces such as private offices or examination and treatment rooms, the pneumatic tubes shall be coated with viscoelastic damping compound or other damping material, such as a 25 mm thick glass-fiber blanket, with an impervious outer covering such as metal foil. Other pipe-sleeving material is available. These materials can be shop-applied for the majority of the system run, with field application required only at the joints. If horizontal tube runs are routed over acoustically critical spaces, such as recovery, surgery, cardiology exam, or Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a suspended-ceiling system providing a sound isolation rating in the range of NIC 40 shall be required in addition to the resilient isolation of the service runs. Alternatively, these system runs can be boxed, encased, or wrapped with an impervious barrier material such as dense plaster, gypsum board, or a 50 mm thick glass-fiber material (96 kg/m³ density) or covered with an impervious outer wrapping such as reinforced leaded vinyl or sheet lead.

In addition to resiliently isolating the service from the building structure, the drive units, transfer or diverter units, and exhauster associated with each type of system runs, motors, pumps, compressors, and gear and drive assemblies shall also be isolated.

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M.4 Elevator Controls

M.4.1 Controller: All new elevator installations and upgrades to existing elevators shall be equipped with a solid-state microprocessor-based controller. These controllers are available to all elevator manufacturers and do not constitute a sole source. The ORF has a program of updating all of the older elevators throughout the campus and will use controllers manufactured by either Computerized Elevator Controls (CEC model “Swift Futura” or later version) or Motion Control Engineering (MCE model “Performa Controller” or later version). MCE hydraulic controllers are recommended for hydraulic elevator applications.

M.4.2 DC-SCR Drives: All new elevator installations and upgrades to existing elevators using CEC equipment shall be equipped with a DC silicone-controlled rectifier (SCR) drive in lieu of motor-generator sets. Either the Magnetek model “DSD412” or the Lewis-Allis model “Sabor” SCR drive for elevator hoist motors is acceptable. Both of these drives are available on the open market and do not constitute a sole source procurement. MCE
Intelligent Motion Controls (IMC) require a new “System 12” SCR drive and are acceptable. All above-mentioned drives or latest version of any are acceptable for installation.

M.4.3 Fixtures: All new elevator fixtures shall be Adam’s Survivor (or Survivor Plus as required in certain areas) Series panels engraved with building number and elevator number and include light-emitting diode (LED) illumination. The hall stations shall be engraved with the fire station information and shall be Adam’s Survivor (or Survivor Plus Series as required in certain areas) series or approved equal.

Car operating panels shall be Adam’s Survivor or Survivor Plus Series, equipped with emergency lighting, digital position indicator, built-in autodialer telephone with call-tracking capability, and fire fighter return service controls and signals. An integral floor announcer shall be provided to announce floor stops, car direction, nudging, firefighter’s return service, and code blue (in hospital). Floor buttons shall be rectangular in shape with numerals and LED illumination. Car station shall be provided with a 120 V GFC1 receptacle and include the following key switch arrangements:

• Inspection Key Switch Duo # 7320
• Car Lighting Key Switch Duo # 7336
• Fan Key Switch Duo # 7336
• Independent Service Key Switch Duo # 7336
• Hall access Key Switch Duo # 7320

M.4.4 Safety Curtains: Safety curtains shall be waterproof GateKeeper series 2000 infrared units or latest version by Adams.

M.4.5 Door Operators: All new elevators shall be equipped with G.A.L. Manufacturing Corporation door operators for standard and bi-parting freight doors. Freight elevators with horizontal doors shall be equipped with Peele Door Company door operators.