The government and the industry have begun to refine the regulations ahead of the implementation of new elevator parts certification on July 26th. The Korea Testing and Research Institute (KTL) held the third briefing session on the implementation of the new elevator parts certification on the 7th floor of the auditorium in Guro-dong, Seoul, on July 27, 2013, and once again gathered industry opinions.

The briefing was held to re-discuss the problems pointed out by the industry at the second briefing held on January 12, and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and KTL collected industry opinions on the new parts certification standards through emails and other means, and came up with an alternative on the 13th after a joint meeting with the inspection agency.

The KEPCO and KTL discussed three issues, which were the most hotly contested, including the deferral of the implementation time, the application of repair parts, and the revision of safety standards.

First, in response to the industry's opinion that a response period is needed, such as the time required to obtain certification for various models, three items, including wire ropes, braking devices for elevator hoists, and safety limit switches, were decided to be deferred, and the deferral period and item targets will be notified separately once the review of the safety standard revision notice is completed. 

"For the braking device for elevator hoists, we will review the load rate, and for wire ropes, only wire ropes for hoists are applicable," said Lee Joo-hwan, head of KTL's elevator certification team. "We will go through this process again through an industry meeting when the timing of the implementation of the three items and the revision of the safety standards come out." Both the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and KTL predicted that it would take at least nine months to a year and a half, taking into account the revision process.

Regarding the application of maintenance parts, which has been the most controversial issue, it was decided that maintenance parts that are installed in elevators that have been completed or inspected before July 26, 2013 will be recognized as maintenance parts, and the five items that are currently in operation will be maintained. Special structural products will be reviewed separately through the revision of the operating guidelines.

According to the consultation proposal, both elevators that need to undergo a completion inspection after July 26, 2013, and elevators that need to undergo periodic inspections due to replacement of parts must submit a certificate with the KC certification mark. The same applies to replacing discontinued parts. "If a discontinued part is replaced with a new part during remodeling work, it must be certified," said Lee Joo-hwan, head of KTL's elevator certification team. "It's just a 'straw man' to raise the issue of having to replace surrounding parts when replacing a discontinued part."

Nam Song-hee, head of the Advanced Innovation Team at the Korea Elevator Safety and Technology Institute, also explained, "When applying for a routine inspection, the replacement parts must comply with the current standards, and the inspection agency does not check whether the parts that have not been replaced are certified." For example, if a discontinued model is installed in an old elevator and only the control panel is replaced, the inspection agency only checks the certificate of the control panel and does not check the certificate of the unreplaced hoist.

However, if an elevator equipped with uncertified parts has to undergo a complete inspection due to a delay in certification due to the certification body's overwhelming workload, the inspection body can take normal circumstances into account without causing complaints. "The test date is assigned at the time of application and assigned in the order of receipt, so delays caused by the company's negligence in not preparing product samples for the test are not considered," said Lee Joo-hwan. The test period for products subject to autonomous safety verification includes durability tests, so it will take 37 days for latch valves, safety circuit boards, and electronic brakes for escalators, and 52 days for steps and step chains for escalators.

Finally, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and KTL are pushing for full or partial revision of 14 standards, citing model classification, clarification of test methods, and harmonization with installation inspection standards. After a comparative review with installation inspection standards, international standards, and national standards, the revision will include all existing safety standards and operating guidelines. 

Certification applications will be accepted from the first of this month, and for products subject to autonomous safety verification, the autonomous safety verification report and the application form for autonomous safety verification safety inspection of industrial products must be completed and submitted. If a certified product changes parts that directly affect safety, a change application form must be completed. Also, if an uncertified product needs to be cleared in advance for testing, it can be cleared even if it is uncertified by submitting an application for pre-clearance of manufactured goods. The certificate shows the KC mark, notification license number, manufacturer's product name, log, etc. on the top and specifies the basic markings for each part.

Meanwhile, the model classification of elevator parts is based on the certification standards, and the subcategories that are not specified exactly in the certification standards will be based on the manufacturer's rating. "If it is a product distributed in the market and is not clearly specified in the certification standards, we will recognize the manufacturer's ratings," said Lee Joo-hwan, head of the team. "We will specify the range of subcategories that the manufacturer wants and classify the models within a limited range."