Fault tolerant real time monitored elevator system development

The paper presents the development of a fault tolerant electromechanical elevator monitoring system aiming to achieve high safety during operation. The proposed methodology is based on a particular permanent magnet synchonous motor (PMSM) in conjunction with suitable driver system characteristics enabling improvements in overall system reliability. The motor design has been performed by using finite elements analysis (FEA) techniques providing detailed operating characteristics of the target motor. Then the motor has been manufactured and appropriately integrated into an existing elevator system in order to validate its operating performance through measurements. The main objective of the drive tuning is to achieve the best possible preventive maintenance of both the motor and the elevator, respectively. For this purpose, real time monitoring and data collection play a key role enabling fault prediction with appropriate techniques and timely information of the maintenance engineer. In this way, the problem can be repaired rapidly, reducing costs and increasing reliability.