By Giuseppe Volpe

1972 is the year of the launch of ‘Elevatori’, the first and only magazine in Italy totally focused on lifts, besides being the very first international media in the vertical transportation sector.

The 1970s were full of technological developments: advanced motors, spreading of hydraulic lifts, electronics, etc.

Something was missing in this fervour.

There was a lack of communication, a lack of both technical and regulatory information.

We were witnessing the exponential growth of the lift industry and, at the same time, hunger for knowledge.

Training has always been a an important topic for the magazine, whose intent was, from the very beginning, to develop and spread sector knowledge, beginning with the communication possibilities of the time.

Elevatori Magazine focused on training

At the time, there was no one to explain the continuous technical-normative developments to operators and there was a great need to fill this gap.

‘Elevatori’ immediately looked for the collaboration of well-known experts from many fields (universities, companies, research institutes, public bodies, etc.), collaborators with proven technical experience, who wrote useful articles targeted at sector professionals and beyond.

The magazine was immediately successful and even used as a tool for legal cases heard in the Courts.

All the topics of Elevatori Magazine 6/2020: click here and read the index of the issue

Elevators Magazine and associations

Our magazine history was immediately intertwined with that of two important Italian lift associations, of which it is the first official journal:

• Anacam (the current ‘National Association of Lift Manufacturers and Maintenance Companies’, which was then named ‘Italian Association of Associations and Consortia of Lift Maintenance Companies’), founded the same year as ‘Elevatori’;
• Anica (Italian Association of Lift Companies), founded on 9th July 1981.

Over the years we have hosted speeches by their representatives who have always taken part in the various Working Groups at international level, in the activities of the Commissions dealing with research, studies, standard drafting and interpretation as well as harmonisation.

The magazine is also the official journal of other important associations:

• Iaee (‘International Association of Elevator Engineers’), organising conferences and congresses, focused on the production of articles and opinions with great insights to improve lift techniques (such as Elevcon, ‘The International Congress on Vertical Transportation Technology’);
• Oitaf (International Organisation for Transportation by Rope), which has always provided fundamental technical contributions regarding ropeway transportation;
• Elca (European Lift & Lift Components Association).

‘Elevatori’ magazine is also close to the world of certification and has excellent relations with associations such as Union (Italian Union of Notified Bodies) and Alpi (Association of Certification and Inspection
Laboratories and Bodies).

Elevator training according to Elevatori Magazine

One of the acknowledged merits of the magazine is that of giving voice to the sector needs and to the experience gained by sector companies.

Elevatori (Elevatori Magazine since 2017) is acknowledged on the market for its technical and training leadership, for its role in the spreading of the sector knowledge, first and foremost under the ‘Standards’ and ‘Technique’ magazine sections, but also with market observation, architecture and trends, showing a willingness to open up to other industrial sectors, whose developments inevitably involve the vertical transportation sector.

Volpe Editore, the Elevatori Magazine publishing house, has also published a book series, ‘How it works’, now in its fifth volume and translated into many languages (Italian, English, Spanish, German, Turkish, Chinese and Hindi).

The collection was meant to explain the lift operation to professionals and to those interested in this profession. It is now considered as a reference even by experts.

‘Elevatori Magazine’ awards the special international ‘Elevatori High-Tech Award’ prize
to the best paper of the Elevcon congress (a highly technical and scientific congress,
organised by Iaee, ‘International Association of Elevator Engineers’).
The jury panel includes representatives of the event organisers.

The ‘How It Works’ collection is even used in high schools by teachers who want to develop technically feasible industrial projects, starting from the theoretical notions acquired through the teaching material.

Universities, such as the Polytechnic of Milan, the Iuav of Venice and the engineering and architecture Departments of the University of Pavia also use these publications for their courses. Our Technical Director, engineer Giovanni Varisco, has been always involved in training courses for maintenance engineers, operators, sector professionals, universities, notified bodies and professional bodies.

For ‘Elevatori Magazine’, training and education have always been a real mission. After several years of traditional education, in addition to books, magazines and in-person teaching, we are now benefiting from the channels and tools of the digital world.

Translated by Paola Grassi