Lift access control systems for floor-by-floor security

What is a lift access control system?

A lift access control system, also called elevator access control, links a building's access control to its lifts so that people can only reach the floors their card allows. It works in one of three ways: by controlling the lift lobby doors, the lift call button, or the floor buttons inside the lift car.

In a building shared by several companies, the tenant on the second floor can keep other tenants' staff and visitors off their floor. A hotel can limit bedroom floors to guests and staff. Floors that anyone may use, such as a ground-floor reception, stay free for everyone.

How lift access control works

1. 1

   Card at the lift reader

   Inside the lift car, the user presents their card to the reader on the button panel. The reader's data lines run to every lift controller in parallel, so each controller sees the same card.

2. 2

   Their floors are enabled

   Each controller looks after up to two floors. Where the card's access level includes a floor, that controller closes the relay wired to the floor button, for the strike time set in Norpass3.

3. 3

   They choose a floor

   Only the enabled buttons respond, so the lift takes the user to one of their own floors. The strike time is set from the lift manufacturer's data.

4. 4

   Every other floor stays locked

   Buttons for floors outside the card's access level never respond, and once the strike time runs out every button returns to locked until the next card.

Each floor is set up in Norpass3 as a door named after its floor, and the floors are added to cardholders' access levels alongside the doors they use. Once programmed, the lift controllers can be left to run offline. The wiring and set-up are in application note AN-0506, listed under Documents.

Three ways to control lift access

AN-0506 describes three methods. They can be combined, for example floor buttons in the lift with readers on the doors of the most restricted floors.

Lift access control hardware

• Lift controllers: each two-door controller module switches up to two floors, so a four-door panel such as the CRC220-4 covers up to four. Add panels in parallel for more floors. The relay contacts are rated at 2 A at 30 V DC, and the CRC22x controllers are designed and manufactured in South Wales.
• Lift reader: one reader in each lift car, wired to every controller for that car in parallel (data lines and ground to all of them, power from one). The panel mount reader fits behind a faceplate with 48 mm hole centres, which suits a car button panel, and reads cards at up to 50 mm depending on the card.
• Door readers and exit buttons on the lift lobby doors, for the lobby-door method: see the proximity readers.
• Software: Norpass3, licence-free, over TCP/IP or RS485.

Working with the lift company

The floor-button method is a hardware integration: the access control relays sit in the floor button circuits and the lift's own controller is left as it is. Agree these points with the lift company before installation:

• How the floor buttons are wired. Normally open buttons go in series with normally open relay contacts; normally closed buttons go in parallel with normally closed contacts.
• The button voltage, which must not exceed 30 V.
• The strike time, meaning how long a button stays enabled after a card is read. It is set in Norpass3 from the lift manufacturer's data, up to 240 seconds.
• A suitable location for the controllers, with cable routes to the car's buttons and reader.
• Some lift controllers can take access control through their own operating system instead. AN-0506 covers the hardware method only, so talk to our technical team if the lift company proposes that route.

Fire alarm and emergency operation

AN-0506 sets each lift controller's Fire Input Action to No Action, so a fire alarm doesn't enable every floor button. What the lift itself does in a fire, such as returning to the ground floor, is set by the lift company, so agree it with them and with the site's fire risk assessment. On the lobby-door method, the door controllers' fire alarm inputs release the lobby doors as normal.

Managing lift access in Norpass3

• Floors in access levels: each floor is a door in Norpass3, added to the access levels of the people who need it alongside the doors they use
• Open floors on a schedule: a floor everyone may use at set times, such as a reception floor in office hours, is set to unlocked for those periods (application note AN-05023)
• Offline operation: once programmed, the lift controllers can be left to run on their own
• One card for doors and lifts: the same card opens the doors a person is allowed through and enables their floors in the lift

What affects the cost of lift access control

• The method: lobby doors, the call button or individual floors
• The number of floors, since each controller module switches up to two
• The number of lift cars, since each car has its own reader and button wiring
• The lift company's time to wire the floor buttons and run cables to the car
• Whether the lifts join an existing Norpass3 system. Norpass3 is licence-free, so there is no software licence to buy either way

We supply through installers and distributors, so the price comes from the installer after a site survey. Our sales team can help put the equipment list together: sales@nortechcontrol.com.