Arkel ARCODE Elevator Control Panel

This is the complete elevator control panel built around Arkel’s ARCODE unit — the cabinet, the shaft wiring, the inspection box and the pit box as one delivered system. It is not the same purchase as the ARCODE control unit on its own.

Which one does a project need

Buy the unit when the panel already exists and only the control and VVVF drive electronics are being replaced — a typical modernisation. Buy this panel when the lift is being built or rewired from scratch, because what you are really buying is the wiring system, not just the electronics. The performance envelope is the same in both cases: 64 stops, up to 4 m/s, groups of up to eight lifts, geared or gearless machines, with or without a machine room.

The wiring is the product

Installation labour and wiring mistakes cost more than the cabinet does, and this panel is designed around that. The shaft CANbus line runs the full height and is jointed floor to floor with socketed cables; landing button panels plug into it at each floor. The door contact wiring runs the same way, with socketed cables for the landing door plug-lock contacts. The inspection box connects to the panel with a one-to-one socketed flat cable, the car button panel connects to the inspection box with a single plug-in cable, and the pit box takes one socketed cable. Landing communication can also run in parallel through the MSP16 card where serial wiring is not wanted.

What is protected, and what is not

Motor phase protection is inside the panel. Car and shaft supplies run through residual-current protected fuses. Shaft lighting is switched by an impulse current switch from buttons at the car top and in the pit, and the emergency alarm siren works from the same two places. The control panel, the inspection box and the pit box each have dedicated safety circuit terminals. One thing to state plainly: Arkel lists door bridging as not available on this panel, so re-levelling with the doors open is not part of it. If a project needs that, it belongs in the specification before the order, not after.

Certification and service

The ARCODE control panels carry their own EU type-examination certificates for EN 81-20/50 and for EN 81-1 + A3 — certificates issued for the panel, not only for the electronics inside it. The hand terminal connects anywhere on the CANbus line and commands the system from that point, so a technician is not tied to the cabinet door. Menus run in ten languages. Rescue to the nearest floor in the easy direction runs on a single-phase 220 VAC UPS or battery group, and direct-to-floor stopping makes short floor spacings workable. Nazar Elevator supplies the panel on its own, alongside the drives and control units range, and inside complete traction elevator systems.