Fire-alarm recall added while retaining a KONE TMS50 controller

A police station in Manchester needed its lift to respond automatically to the building’s fire alarm. Altius Lifts engineered an interface that delivered the required operation while retaining the existing KONE TMS50 controller, with approximately two hours of on-site installation and lift downtime.

The challenge

The existing controller did not provide the required fire-alarm functionality. On alarm activation, the lift needed to return to a designated landing and be taken out of normal service. Once the fire alarm was reset, the lift needed to return automatically to normal operation.

The client had been advised that achieving this required a complete controller replacement, quoted at approximately £28,000–£30,000. Similar requirements existed across several lifts within the police force’s estate, creating the prospect of multiple controller replacements.

Our approach

Our in-house technical team designed and built a standalone programmable logic controller (PLC) interface between the building’s fire-alarm system and the existing lift controller.

The interface delivered the required sequence:

• Fire alarm activates: the lift recalls to the designated landing.
• Recall completes: the lift is taken out of normal service.
• Fire alarm resets: the lift automatically returns to normal operation.

Installation took approximately two hours, with the lift unavailable for the same period.

The outcome

The client obtained the required fire-alarm response while retaining the existing controller and limiting disruption to a short installation period. The interface avoided the need for a complete controller replacement to achieve this functionality.

This was the second interface Altius Lifts had designed and installed for the client, with further installations planned across the estate.