BS 5655-1:1979

This standard BS 5655-1:1979 Lifts and service lifts is classified in these ICS categories:

• 91.140.90 Lifts. Escalators

This standard deals with permanently installed new lifts serving defined landing levels, having a car designed for the transportation of persons and/or goods, suspended by rope(s) or chain(s) or supported by one or more rams and moving at least partially between vertical guides or guides slightly inclined to the vertical. [For appliances where the inclination of the guides to the vertical exceeds 15°, this standard may usefully be taken as a basis (N.a, b).]

It does not cover the lifts which come under the following headings: paternosters, rack and pinion elevators, screw-driven elevators, mine lifts, theatrical lifts, appliances with automatic caging, skips, lifts and hoists for building and public works sites, ships’ hoists, platforms for exploration or drilling at sea, construction and maintenance appliances. However, this standard may usefully be taken as a basis.

This standard need not be applied (N.a) in the following cases:

1. a lift installed in a private residence or as a means of access to a private residence in a building, such that the lift is inaccessible to the other occupants of the building and to the general public, and if there are specific national rules concerning this type of lift;

2. the installation of lifts serving only two levels, specialized for transporting the handicapped and where the travel does not exceed 4 m, the speed does not exceed 0.1 m/s, and the movement of the car requires continuous pressure on a button.

Certain clauses need not be applied (N.b) to the extent that space does not permit, in the following cases:

1. lifts installed in buildings in existence at the time this standard is brought into application;

2. important modifications (Appendix E) to a lift installed before this standard is brought into application.

This standard is divided into four Parts.

• Part 1: deals with electric lifts;

• Part 2: deals with hydraulic lifts (in preparation);

• Part 3: deals with electric service lifts (in preparation);

• Part 4: deals with hydraulic service lifts (in preparation).

Safety requirements for passenger and goods electric lifts to safeguard passengers and maintenance personnel against injury. Covers the mechanical and electrical construction of the lift, the relevant structural features of the building in which it is installed and subsequent examination and testing. See also PD 6500.