Disaster begins with a bolt

Sacramento Mather Airport California – USA On February 16^th, 2000, Emery Worldwide’s DC-8 aircraft flew from California to Ohio. The flight carried 59 tons of cargo and fuel with 3 crew members. Less than four minutes after takeoff, the plane lost altitude and crashed into a parking lot. The plane was completely destroyed and the entire crew was killed.

Investigation revealed that, during take-off, the high-speed airflow broke a newly replaced bolt. The bolt broke, causing the hydraulic system of the left wing of the aircraft to become stuck, causing the aircraft to lose control of altitude and crash

Catastrophic accidents come from small details

Expanding the investigation, it was found that Emery Worldwide has saved repair and maintenance costs by using components in the market, without quality assurance. The aforementioned bolt is among them. Emery Worldwide was punished with a permanent suspension in August 2001.

It happened a long time ago, but the topicality never gets old.

What is creating the components matrix?

The example above shows how important component quality is to the product. Especially, it is directly related to the level of human safety. So is the elevator. It is made up of many mechanical and electronic components. And if this vehicle is not manufactured, repaired, or replaced with appropriate quality components and equipment, or in accordance with specifications, there is always a potential risk.

The essence of the problem is like that, but why are fake, imitation, and poor quality goods still alive?

Firstly, it is the fact that many businesses are dishonest, taking advantage of the trust of consumers. Specifically, the control cabinet – considered the “brain” of the elevator is an example. In order to meet the need of xenophile, some businesses placed orders to purchase the main control boards Step, Monarch (China) or PLC boards (Mitsubishi Electric), Fuji inverters, etc. When attaching components and equipment to the cabinet, people give these cabinets names of famous brands such as Fuji, Nippon, Mitsubishi, Schneider, etc. “origin” imported from Thailand, Malaysia, …

By this method, it is easy for sellers to deceive consumers who are “hungry” for products that are good quality but cheap! It should also be added that, in the world, there are only about 10 manufacturers of synchronous electrical cabinets, mainly for assembly and replacement of their products, not for sale. Even Mitsubishi’s PLC board is a common type for the control circuits of many types of electronic equipment, not a specialized type for elevators.

Second, is the problem that consumers do not have enough knowledge about the regulations and standards of the equipment and components constituting the elevator. This leads to fake equipment, components, poor quality, no CO, CQ… being installed for the elevator and customers are not aware. In order to obtain standards (such as European standards) for their products, manufacturers must diligently research from raw materials that must meet the requirements of health safety, environment, design, on strict technical criteria such as impact resistance, torsion force, pressure force, traction force, etc.

Component prices will have a significant impact on “demand” and sometimes lead to disregarding the safety factor

Meanwhile, counterfeiters, counterfeit components despite the above conditions and standards. There is a case of using the manufacturer’s stamp of Ziehl – Abegg (Germany) on Chinese traction machine to deceive consumers, (Elevator Magazine has article about this matter). Until the truth is clarified, in the end, it is still the consumer who suffers directly. Domestic and foreign manufacturing enterprises suffer indirectly because their products are subject to intense price competition. Many businesses have been “frustrated” with the unfair competition mentioned above.

Third, the component “matrix” comes from the technician’s limited qualifications, lack of ethics. Instead of advising customers about the importance of components and equipment that need to be replaced or repaired, technicians choose to make, patch, and replace cheap, easy-to-find components to fix the situation.

A domestic elevator technical forum that is quite popular on social networks shares about the elevator maintenance case. The maintenance technicians realized that the elevator they were working on had already replaced all its contactors with relays. Obviously, this will make the elevator start “quietly” and the cost is many times cheaper, which may have made customers feel “comfortable” when spending money. But at the time of inspection, technicians discovered that the continuous arc caused the relay to burn, stopping the elevator. Elevator users not only lose a lot of money to replace components, but also spend a lot of time buying components and repairing. And if this situation is not detected by the maintenance technicians, it is unknown what will happen next.

Any suggestions for savvy consumers?

Many elevator experts and consumers have drawn and explained through experience the cause of the elevator component matrix.

The first reason is that some businesses and individuals have ethical problems. They put profit first instead of sustainable profit, growing with society. They find legal loopholes, consumers’ habits to consume products in any way, regardless of safety factors, environmental and social impacts…

The second reason comes from the legal document system, there are loops, shortcomings, sanctions are not enough deterrents… Along with that, the authorities for many objective and subjective reasons, have not been able to thoroughly supervise, inspect and handle the enforcement of legal regulations in the field of elevators.

Comply with processes, regulations and standards to create high-quality elevator products

The third reason comes from consumers. The habit of being easy, the psychology of xenophile but eager to buy cheap makes consumers face the risk of becoming a victim. Elevators are special equipment related to safety and human life, so it is impossible to be lenient in choosing, buying and selling!

And if consumers equip themselves with a necessary and sufficient amount of knowledge, all kinds of fake goods, imitation goods, poor quality goods, fraudulent businesses and individuals will have no where to go!

For example, there was a time when the market was flooded with Chinese motorcycles. Consumers choose Chinese motorcycles for three reasons: beautiful, cheap, and many models. But there is an important factor that consumers may not have taken into account or they have not had the opportunity to experience: the safety and durability of the vehicle. Just over time, Chinese cars also disappeared from the market as quickly as they came to Vietnam when consumers realized that although it was cheap and beautiful, it was less safe and very quickly became… a pile of scrap metal. When consumers experience the “pain of losing money” that Chinese motorcycles bring, they will turn away from this segment of cheap cars. But to have that experience, consumers have lost a lot of money and even lives when using an unsafe device.

We need to require businesses supplying elevator products both imported and domestically produced to transparently disclose information about the most important components of the elevator. Which standard does the product meet from the time of designing, producing, testing and putting into the market?

It will not be possible to have a common suggestion for all customers because the needs and choices are completely different. But safety is the highest goal that consumers should prioritize over price. Whether it is a domestic elevator or an imported one, it is necessary to ask the same questions that need to be answered in the clearest way.

Sometimes, it will be a simple but important “test” for customers to have a basis for placing their trust./