Group Proposal

Butterfly Effect in the Escalator!

(Specific Solutions to Elevator Problems and Possible Safety Hazards)

    Instructor/Professor: Bubrow

Team Name: That Better Team

   Team Members: Jeremy Zhu

      : John Mattiello

      : Alessio Gjeka

Escalators are simple and convenient transportation equipment of automatic machinery and electronics. Due to their simple operation and increasing in numbers, they have become indispensable means of transportation in the application and are closely related to the student convenience in the schools. Therefore, as a special equipment, the escalators may cause irreparable damages once they have the safety hazards. However, they have become another focus of student’s livelihood. In recent years, when the escalators in the school campus buildings fail, and if it happens frequently, then It brings great inconvenience and the problem to the convenience of students to a certain extent. Therefore, it is very necessary to analyze the problems which caused the escalator failures reasonably, therefore, to minimize the incidence of escalator accidents and problems, and ensure that the escalator can operate normally in order to bring the convenience to students in our school. The problem of escalators is like the butterfly effect. It seems that a small problem may bring a huge chain reaction, so we cannot ignore the safety problems and hidden dangers of this escalator.

 

Introduction to the escalators’ problem around our school buildings:

• When we are standing on the escalator, is there a feeling that the body feels leaning forward? This is our personal experiences. in the NAC building, whenever we use the escalators from the second floor to the third floor, and the second floor to the first floor, when we were on those two escalators, we all had a feeling that our bodies were tilted forward a little bit. It’s like feeling that it will fall forward. So, why this phenomenon happen?

The Sheaves/Steps: This is caused by the failure of the sheaves and the steps of the escalators, and the step is the standing part on the escalators they are designed for people whenever they take the escalator. Because of the environmental conditions, human factors, the machine itself and other reasons. The main failure includes the broken of the pedal tooth; support spindle hole has broken; support cover broken; main wheel degumming.

The solution of the problem: To solve those problems we can just simply buy the replacements of each part, such as replacement of sheaves, and pedal; replacement of the spindle hole; replacement of support cover; replacement of the main wheel; or if necessary the replacement of the entire step.

• We have often seen the escalators from the second floor to the third floor and the third floor to the fourth floor stop working frequently, and we have been wondering why this happens because this kind of phenomenon happens almost every single day in the NAC building, so we wanted to figure out exactly what happened to those escalators.

The Step/Drag Chain: This is caused by the failure of the step chain of the escalators, step chain are tire chains used as the cable carrier which drives the entire escalator. The step/drag chain damages were due to the lack of prolonged operation, and the daily maintenance, and that’s how it caused the damages of the escalators and it’s also the main reason why the escalators stop working completely.

The solution to the problem: As the cause of the problem has addressed, we can just simply have our technicians to carry out the daily maintenance or if necessary, we can replace the entire step/drag chain in order for the escalator to be fully working.

• Escalator Cleaning Conditions: The elevators can get very dirty throughout the day. For a college that has 16,000 students that are coming from the outside and dragging dirt, snow, leaves, etc… the pads can get extremely dirty. When dirt and other substances enter the escalator it builds up and eventually will jam into all the parts. This causes the escalator to fail and shut down into safety mode, which then causes foot traffic and prevents teacher and students from getting to class on time.

Solution to the problem: There is a very cheap and inexpensive way to clean the elevator. There are an object call elevator cleaning pads. Now, these pads are made by multiple companies but work the same exact way. The college can just invest a minimum amount of money into the cheapest cleaning pads. The technicians will install them and the whole process should only take fifteen minutes per escalator.  

Cost of different adjustment

Subject                 Cost                                       Time Period       How many                                   Final costs

Maintenance     Each maintenance is 120$       Monthly                   12 Months                                            1440$

Sheaves              578$ each      One-time payment for 10 years       36 sheaves for each escalator            20808$

Step Chains        210$                           One-time payment      Depends on how many needs to replace Range of 6000$

Cleaning pads    300$ each                 One-time payment      36 cleaning pads, 2 for each escalator       10800$

Total                                                                                                                                          1440$ per year/One-time payment 37608$

Conclusion

The escalator in NAC building at the City College of New York needs to be fixed, not only for conformity but because of students actually, pay for these services (Tuition). The escalator should be fixed in the course of one year and has not to be taken longer than that. There are time and money for escalators and they will be very efficient and solve different problems such less latenesses and other factors that as not only to do with students. So here, we call on all the teachers and students, we need the voice of all people to fight for and get the opportunity to repair this escalator. The benefits of this will greatly help the convenience of teachers and students so that we can work and learn better, and at the same time, it can greatly reduce the safety hazards of escalators.

 

Personal Experience:

 

Alessio Gjeka:

Alessio Gjeka is a current student at the City College of New York currently studying for biomedical Engineer as intended major. He is a multitasking guy, has high skills in speaking in public and using Word and Excel programs. His dream is to be an engineer and build something in the medical field that will have an effect on most of the high-risk diseases. Lastly, he is quadrilingual speaker speaking in depth Italian, English, Spanish and Albanian.

Jeremy Zhu:

A dedicated and trustworthy sophomore years civil engineering major student from City College of New York, with a good problem-solving skill in mathematics and sciences. Bilingual in languages, such as Chinese, English, and some Japanese, with the technical skills in AutoCAD-2018, QA, QC, and Microsoft Office.

John Mattiello:

Currently attending the City College of New York. Has the experience in the following programming languages: C++, Javascript, HTML, Python, and Csharp. Very good people person and works very well under pressure. The third year in college, majoring in Computer Engineering. Can speak Norwegian and Ukrainian.

Work Cited:

1. 7 Factors May Cause Escalator Failure in 2018. (2018). Retrieved December 8, 2018, from https://www.elevatorvip.com/7-factors-may-cause-escalator-failure-in-2018/
2. Parts. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://precisionescalator.com/parts-01/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAurjgBRCqARIsAD09sg_lOiCVCou-K7QIH-y_NLKfPMua4ZrzA55Sd8xhDxuXT5T_SDoXK9IaAl6BEALw_wcB