Elevator cable · traveling cable and hoistway wiring
Elevator cable buyers in New York
Travelling cable is the only cable on this site that is designed to wear out. It flexes every time the car moves, it has a published flex life, and that single fact governs what a used length is worth.
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Elevator cable is reviewed on construction — flat or round — conductor count and size, voltage rating and length. New surplus traveling cable on a reel is a product. Cable removed from a car is at the end of its service life by definition, and is bought on copper content after the steel load members are accounted for.
Flat, round, and built to move
Travelling cable connects the elevator car to the controller while the car moves through the hoistway. One end is fixed at the car, the other at a point in the hoistway or machine room, and the cable hangs in a loop that grows and shrinks with every trip. It is supported, flexed and straightened thousands of times a year, and everything about its construction follows from that.
Flat traveling cable is the common form in low- and mid-rise work. Conductors are laid side by side in a flat jacket, with steel load members embedded along the edges or between conductor groups to carry the cable's own weight and stop it stretching. Because it is flat, it stacks neatly in the loop and bends in one plane, which is what the application wants. Conductors are typically 18, 16 or 14 AWG stranded copper, and the jacket is a tough polyurethane or neoprene compound.
Round traveling cable is used where the drop is long, the car speed is high or the cable has to travel over sheaves. It has a steel core or strength member at the center, conductors laid around it, and a round jacket that withstands repeated bending in any direction. Hoistway and pit wiring is a separate group: ordinary 600 V building wire and control cable installed in conduit or flexible raceway, fixed rather than moving.
A cable with a published service life
Every other cable on this site is expected to last as long as the installation. Travelling cable is a wear item, like a brake pad. Manufacturers publish flex-life data based on bend radius and travel, and the cable is specified so that its flex life exceeds the duty of the installation with a margin. In a busy passenger elevator, that life is reached in years, not decades.
ASME A17.1/CSA B44, the elevator and escalator code adopted in New York, requires traveling cables to be listed for the application and inspected as part of routine maintenance. Inspectors look for jacket cracking, flattening and corrugation of a flat cable, broken or exposed strands, and deterioration at the point where the cable is clamped. A cable that fails those checks is replaced, and the replaced cable is scrap.
That is the defining economic fact of this family. A used traveling cable is not a cable with remaining life that somebody might buy; it is a cable that was removed because its life was judged to be over. The only reusable traveling cable is new surplus that never went into service.
New York's elevator modernisation work
New York City's elevator stock is old, dense and heavily used, and a large share of it is being modernised rather than replaced. A modernisation typically keeps the hoistway and the car shell and replaces the controller, the machine, the door operator and the wiring — including the traveling cable, the hoistway wiring and the pit wiring. That is a cable-intensive job in a very constrained space.
The work is driven by equipment age and by the city's inspection regime. Elevators are inspected annually and subjected to more extensive tests on a five-year cycle under Department of Buildings rules, and equipment that cannot pass is either repaired or modernised. Controller obsolescence is the other engine: when a controller is no longer supported, the wiring that serves it usually goes with it.
Machine-room-less conversions add a further twist. The controller moves into a closet or a hoistway-mounted cabinet, the runs get longer in some places and shorter in others, and the traveling cable has to be re-specified for the new arrangement. Contractors therefore order to a calculated length, and the offcut from that calculation is a common item in a modernisation lot.
What that does to the value
New surplus traveling cable is bought on construction, conductor count, size, voltage and length, exactly like any other cable. Flat cable is ordered to a specific length for a specific hoistway, so a reel that is longer than the next job's requirement has value only to a job of similar rise, and a reel that is too short has none. That makes the length almost as important as the conductor count.
Removed traveling cable is different. It contains copper, and it also contains steel load members that have to be separated before the copper can be sold, which reduces the yield per pound of cable. It is short, it is worn, and it is specific to a hoistway that no longer needs it. It is bought on metal content, and the seller should expect it to be described that way rather than as reusable cable.
Hoistway and pit wiring sits in between. Fixed wiring removed during a modernisation is ordinary control and power cable, and it is reviewed on the same terms as any plant control cable — size, count, jacket condition and length.
- Flat or round construction, and the number of conductors
- AWG and voltage rating
- Overall length, and the length required by the original installation
- Whether the cable is new surplus or removed from service
- For removed cable: jacket condition, exposed strands and steel content
Specification
What a buyer needs to know about this cable
Every row below changes what a lot is worth. If the reel tag is gone, the jacket print and a cut end usually answer most of it.
Missing detail is not a problem — say what is missing and the review works from photographs.
| Constructions | Flat traveling cable with steel load members; round traveling cable with a steel core; hoistway and pit wiring |
|---|---|
| Conductor sizes | 18, 16 and 14 AWG, stranded copper |
| Conductor counts | 3 through 30 or more, depending on car functions and controller type |
| Voltage rating | 300 V typical for traveling cable; 600 V on some hoistway and machine room wiring |
| Jacket | Polyurethane, neoprene or EPR insulation with a tough outer jacket; flat cable is often color coded |
| Load members | Galvanised steel ropes or synthetic strength members embedded in the flat cable |
| Standards | ASME A17.1/CSA B44 for elevators and escalators; cable listed for the application |
| Condition signals | Jacket cracking, flat cable corrugation, exposed or broken strands, memory set, ground continuity |
Constructions
Elevator cable we review
New surplus and removed traveling cable are two different materials with two different prices.
New flat traveling cable
Unused flat cable on a reel, with steel load members and a full conductor count. The best category, and the only one with a genuine reuse market.
New round traveling cable
Steel-cored round cable for high-rise and high-speed work. Reviewed on conductor count, length and the condition of the outer jacket.
Modernisation offcuts
Lengths left after a controller or machine replacement, often too short for another hoistway. Valued on copper after the steel members are accounted for.
Removed traveling cable
Cable taken off a car at the end of its flex life. Worn, corrugated and short, and bought as recovery material rather than as cable.
Hoistway and pit wiring
Fixed control and power cable from the hoistway, pit and machine room. Reviewed like plant control cable, on size, count and jacket condition.
Mixed elevator modernisation lots
Travelling cable, hoistway wire, control cable and fittings from a single job. Separated by type, it recovers more than the same material in one pile.
New York
Elevator cable in the New York market
Elevator work in New York is continuous because the equipment is old and heavily used. Modernisation projects release traveling cable, hoistway wiring and control cable in modest quantities, usually from a single building at a time, and the material is stored in a basement or a machine room until somebody deals with it. Larger portfolios produce the same material across several buildings.
Demand for new surplus traveling cable comes from elevator contractors and maintenance companies who need a specific construction and length. It is a narrow market, and it is why an accurate description of conductor count and length matters more than the weight. Removed cable has no such market and is priced on metal.
What helps a New York lot move
- Flat or round, with the conductor count
- AWG and voltage rating from the print
- Length, and whether it matches a standard hoistway rise
- New surplus or removed from service
- For removed cable, the steel content and jacket condition
Seller questions
Questions sellers ask
What is elevator traveling cable?
It is the cable that connects the elevator car to the controller while the car moves, hanging in a loop that changes length with every trip. Flat constructions carry conductors side by side with steel load members, and round constructions have a central strength member with conductors around it. It carries control, communication, lighting and door operator circuits.
Why is used traveling cable not resold as cable?
Because it is removed at the end of its flex life. Travelling cable is a wear item, and a cable taken off a car has usually reached the condition that caused its replacement — jacket cracking, corrugation or broken strands. There is no reliable way to certify remaining life, so it is bought on copper content.
What sizes and voltages are typical?
Conductors are usually 18, 16 or 14 AWG stranded copper, in counts from three up to thirty or more depending on the car's functions. Travelling cable is commonly rated 300 V, with 600 V appearing on some hoistway and machine room wiring. The rating and count are printed on the jacket or on the reel tag.
Does the steel in flat cable affect the price?
Yes. Flat traveling cable contains steel load members that carry the cable's weight, and those have to be separated before the copper is recovered. That reduces the copper yield per pound of cable, and it is why a removed traveling cable is valued on contained copper rather than on total weight.
Do you buy hoistway and pit wiring as well?
Yes. Fixed wiring removed during a modernisation is ordinary control and power cable, and it is reviewed on conductor size, count, voltage rating, jacket condition and length. It is a different material from the traveling cable and should be listed separately.
Keep reading
Related pages
- Control cable buyersHoistway and controller control cable
- Tray cable buyersTray-listed power and control cable
- Copper wire buyersCopper conductor and metal value
- Fire alarm cable buyersLife safety cable in the same buildings
- Plant liquidation cable buyersBuilding and plant cable stock
- Data center cable buyersMission-critical vertical transportation wiring
Next step
Send the lot details
Include the storage city, how it is stored and what can reach it. If you have photographs of reel tags or jacket print, send them with the enquiry.
Send the lot
One desk reviews every lot that arrives.
Prefer to talk? 614-715-3047 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com