Company News

Atwell International are proud to provide quality safety products, and the VG Overspeed Governor (VG OSG) is no exception. This is a unique product, and as such we are very keen to ensure that it sets the standard for other overspeed governors to follow.

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) have postponed the cessation of presumption of conformity of the EN81-1:1998+A3:2009 standard, initially fixed on 30th June 2011, for six months.

As a result of this postponement, Atwell International have decided to utilize this additional time to enhance and improve the software behind the governor, with a view to supplying VG OSG's from July. Part of the software update relates to a subtle, but important, change in the published version of the BS EN81-1:1998+A3:2009 amendment.

The VG OSG was originally conceived and designed around the initial draft of the EN81 update, which stated:

9.11 Protection against unintended car movement

9.11.1 Lifts shall be provided with a means to stop unintended car movement away from the landing with the landing doors not in the closed position, as a result of failure in any single component of the lift machine or drive system upon which the safe movement of the car depends, except failure of the suspension ropes or chains and the traction sheave or drum or sprockets of the machine.

The published version of the code reads as follows:

9.11 Protection against unintended car movement

9.11.1 Lifts shall be provided with a means to stop unintended car movement away from the landing with the landing door not in the locked position and the car door not in the closed position, as a result of failure in any single component of the lift machine or drive system upon which the safe movement of the car depends, except failure of the suspension ropes or chains and the traction sheave or drum or sprockets of the machine.

This alteration to the amendment is crucial, as it now enables tipping of door locks, and the recognised industry standard practice of crash stopping a lift to allow access to the lift car roof.

These small changes allow compliance with the code without causing unnecessary disruptions to the lift service and unwarranted safety gear / rope brake deployments.

Existing installations

Atwell International will be liaising with companies that have already installed the VG OSG in order to review and monitor the installation on a regular basis. The software update is now available, and a software upgrade will be carried out throughout June on existing installations.

All outstanding orders for the VG OSG as of 27th May 2011 will be dispatched with the latest software revisions.

Any issues with the VG OSG should be reported to Atwell International immediately, whereby we will arrange for a consultation and will offer full support and advice for the issue.

The software update is not a safety issue, and does not impact on the safety of the device.

VG OSG orders

We would like to express our gratitude for the tremendous interest in this exciting new solution. Although the product is fully functional and 100% reliable, working with test clients has helped us to identify a couple of areas where we can further improve the product before full launch.

We are working to improve the VG OSG for the benefit of all customers, and we are delighted to announce that the VG OSG has received full certification from BSI as an Overspeed Governor (Certificate BSI-LG-566507) which includes a Test Report (289/7574031) for Unintended Car Movement Protection. Copies of these documents will be available on our web site in the near future.