Key takeaways
- Set brackets at 700 mm pitch or closer; a 2,000 mm unsupported span deflects about 11 mm under a 1 kN lean, while 700 mm pitch holds it under 0.5 mm.
- Set the grip centreline at 900 mm above finished floor with 40–50 mm clear behind it, so the knuckles clear the car wall.
- Weld end caps on 1.5 mm stainless only with a backing purge or a low-heat sequence; heat tint on 304 is a corrosion site, not a cosmetic mark.
- Form the grip from 1.5 mm 304 sheet at a 1.5 t inside radius; a tighter radius work-hardens the corner and cracks after two bends.
A lift car handrail is judged by a passenger in under three seconds. They grip it, feel whether it moves, and look along it for a wavy reflection. Nothing in the drawing review catches either problem, and both are built in at the press brake and the welding bench.
The physics is simple. A 1,400 mm handrail on 1.5 mm stainless sheet with brackets only at the ends of the car wall deflects about 3.7 mm when an adult leans on the middle of it. The same grip on brackets at 700 mm pitch moves 0.5 mm. One feels like a handrail and the other feels like a loose fitting, and the difference is two brackets and 90 mm of extra drilling.
Elevator handrail manufacturing is a forming, welding and finishing sequence where the finish decides the first impression and the bracket pitch decides whether the part is trusted. This is the route we run for lift OEM work, the numbers behind it, and where the route stops being right.
What does a handrail have to do that the drawing does not say?
It has to feel fixed, look straight in reflected light, and stay clean in a damp shaft. Those three sentences cover the whole specification, and a drawing that states only a section and a length will miss at least one of them.
Feeling fixed is a stiffness question, and stiffness is set by bracket pitch, not by grip thickness. Going from 1.5 mm to 2.0 mm sheet raises the second moment of area by about 2.4 times for the same profile, which is useful, but moving a bracket from 1,200 mm to 700 mm pitch reduces deflection by almost five times for the same section. Fix the pitch first, then choose the thickness.
Looking straight is a forming and finishing question. A stainless grip reflects the car wall back at the passenger, so a 0.3 mm wave along a bend line shows as a visible kink. That wave comes from a worn punch, an uneven die gap or a bend line that crosses a laser pierce.
Staying clean is a material and weld question. Type 304 stainless resists the general damp of a shaft, but weld heat tint and free iron on the surface are where pitting starts, usually at the end cap or the bracket foot.
Grip geometry, brackets and finish
The table is the handrail specification we work to. The middle column is what the drawing should state; the right-hand column is what we hold and where the constraint bites.
| Parameter | What the drawing should state | Ganesh practice or limit | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mounting height | 900 mm to top of grip above finished floor | 900 mm; 850 mm on retrofit cars when specified | Accessible-lift practice and passenger reach |
| Grip width or diameter | 38–40 mm round, or 55–65 mm formed flat grip | 55–65 mm formed grips standard; straight round sections by agreement | Hand closure and comfort |
| Clearance behind grip | 40–50 mm from car wall face | 45 mm standard | Knuckles clear the cladding |
| Grip material | 1.5 mm 304 to IS 6911, or 2.0 mm CRCA | 1.5 mm 304; 2.0 mm CRCA powder coated | 304 suits damp shafts; CRCA suits colour schemes |
| Inside bend radius | 1.5 t minimum on 304 | 2.5 mm at 1.5 mm; 3.0 mm at 2.0 mm | Tighter radius work-hardens and cracks |
| Bracket pitch | 700 mm maximum, 150 mm from free ends | 600–700 mm; 150 mm end set-back | Controls deflection under a lean |
| Span deflection | 1.0 mm maximum at 1 kN mid-span | Under 0.5 mm at 700 mm pitch | Over 2 mm reads as a loose part |
| Bracket material | 2.5 mm 304 or 3.0 mm CRCA | 3.0 mm bracket, laser cut and folded | Bracket takes the load into the wall |
| Fixing | M6 through-bolt to car frame, or M6 rivet nut in skin | M6 at 2 per bracket; rivet nut where no frame | 1.2 mm skin alone will not hold a leaning adult |
| Weld finish | Dressed flush, tint removed, passivated | Dressed, tint removed, cleaned before packing | Tint pits and stains the cladding |
| Length tolerance | ±1.0 mm overall | ±0.5 mm typical, ±1.0 mm on formed ends | End gap to the car wall is visible |
| General tolerance | ISO 2768-1 class m where unstated | ISO 2768-1 class m; tighter on fixing holes | Keeps the drawing unambiguous |
Two rows are worth arguing about at design review. Clearance behind the grip is the one that gets missed: a 38 mm grip set 25 mm off the wall looks right on a plan view and traps the passenger's knuckles. Bracket fixing is the other, because a handrail bolted only into a 1.2 mm car panel will pull a dish into the panel at the first hard lean, and the dish stays after the load comes off.
Formed grip or bought tube?
A round handrail is a tube with end caps and brackets. A formed grip is a folded sheet section with a closed or open profile, welded at the ends.
We form grips from sheet rather than bending tube, because our bending capacity is a 200 T, 5-axis press brake with a 4,450 mm bed, not a mandrel tube bender. A formed grip gives the designer control over the section shape, suits stainless at 1.5 mm, and lets the bracket feet be part of the same part. What it does not give is a long sweeping bend in the horizontal plane, which is what a curved car wall needs.
If the drawing shows a curved handrail following a radiused car wall, that is a tube-bending operation or a rolled section. We will say so at quotation rather than attempt a press-brake approximation that leaves facets in the reflection.
The route: cut, form, weld, finish
Cutting the blanks and brackets
The 12 kW fibre laser on the 40 ft × 16 ft bed cuts 1.5 mm 304 grip blanks and 3.0 mm bracket blanks in the same nest. Stainless is cut with nitrogen at 1.5 mm, which leaves an oxide-free edge that needs no pickling before forming, unlike an oxygen-cut mild steel edge. Bracket slots and fixing holes are cut in the same operation, so the bracket pitch is set by the laser, not by a drill operator.
Nesting matters more on stainless because the material costs several times CRCA and remnants are hard to use for anything visible. Grip blanks are long and narrow, which nests badly on a standard sheet; we run them alongside bracket and end cap blanks from the same 1,250 × 2,500 mm sheet so the offcut is a usable size.
Forming the grip
The grip is formed on the 200 T brake in three or four folds depending on the section. Inside radius is 2.5 mm at 1.5 mm material, which is 1.67 t and inside the safe range for 304. Below about 1.5 t the outer fibre work-hardens enough that the second fold shows a crack line, and 304 cracks are not repairable by polishing.
Springback on 304 is roughly 3–5° at 1.5 mm with a 2.5 mm radius, against 1–2° for CRCA, so the bend angle is set on the machine and checked on the first part rather than trusted from a table. The stainless bending guide has the angle corrections by thickness.
Protective film stays on through forming. A bare stainless surface on a press brake picks up die marks that show after the film comes off, and those marks are the first thing a car interior buyer looks for.
Welding end caps and brackets
End caps close the grip so the open section does not collect dust and so the end reads as a finished part. They are welded on 1.5 mm 304 with a low-heat sequence: short runs, alternating sides, and a backing purge where the joint is closed.
The bracket feet are welded or riveted to the grip depending on the drawing. A welded bracket foot on a visible face needs the weld dressed flush, and dressing a 1.5 mm section with a grinder takes 0.1 mm off the wall if the operator is not careful. On visible faces we prefer a bracket that wraps the grip and is fixed with two M4 screws from the back, which leaves no weld to dress.
Finishing
Stainless is dressed, degreased, and cleaned of free iron. Where the specification demands passivation after welding, that is an outside operation, quoted separately; what we do in house is mechanical dressing, tint removal and a clean before the part is filmed and packed.
Painted handrails take the same route as any coated elevator part: seven-tank pretreatment, then powder at 60–80 µm in the 18 ft × 14 ft booth, with adhesion checked by cross-hatch to ISO 2409. A handrail edge takes knocks in transit, so the packing is a foam sleeve rather than a paper wrap.
The number that sets the bracket pitch
Take a formed grip of 60 mm width, 40 mm depth and 1.5 mm wall in 304, with a second moment of area of about 79,000 mm⁴ and a modulus of 193,000 MPa. A 1 kN lean at mid-span, treated as a simply supported beam, gives:
- deflection = F × L³ / (48 × E × I)
- at 700 mm pitch: 0.47 mm
- at 1,200 mm pitch: 2.35 mm
- at 2,000 mm with brackets at the ends: 10.9 mm
The 700 mm case is a handrail. The 2,000 mm case is a grab rail that moves when someone holds it, and passengers read that movement as a maintenance failure even when nothing has failed.
The same calculation explains why the bracket foot needs a real fixing. A 700 mm pitch bracket carries half the span load plus the reaction, roughly 0.5 kN at each of the middle brackets under a 1 kN lean. Two M6 fixings into a 3.0 mm bracket and the car frame will hold that comfortably. Two M6 rivet nuts into a 1.2 mm skin will not: the skin dishes around each fixing long before the load reaches 0.5 kN, and the dish stays after the hand comes off.
What Ganesh runs for lift handrails
Handrail grips, end caps and brackets are laser cut on the 12 kW fibre laser, formed on the 200 T, 5-axis brake with the 4,450 mm bed to 10 mm, and welded on the CLOOS robotic cells or the manual stations, with fixtures designed in our tool room. Coated handrails run the seven-tank pretreatment line into the powder booth. Tolerances are ±0.5 mm typical on sheet metal features, tighter on critical ones by agreement.
TKE and Eros Elevators are the lift references on our customer list, and the handrail, door panel and frame work for those programmes is the basis for the bracket pitches and finish rules here. The part family is described on the elevator parts page, and the other lift components sit under the elevator and lift guides. Both plants operate to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015.
We do not carry out electrolytic passivation or electropolishing in house, and we do not bend tube. A specification that needs either is still quotable, but the operation is a purchase and the tolerance chain includes it.
What the lift drawing has to settle
- Grip section with dimensions, material grade (304 or 316L to IS 6911) and sheet thickness.
- Mounting height to the top of the grip, and the clearance behind it.
- Overall length with the end condition: square cut, capped, or returned to the wall.
- Bracket positions, pitch, fixing size and the substrate the bracket fixes to.
- Whether brackets are welded, riveted or screw-fixed, and which faces are visible.
- Weld finish: dressed flush, tint removed, passivated, and the surface finish (brushed, mirror or 2B).
- Coating colour and DFT if the part is painted rather than stainless.
- Packing requirement, because a handrail that arrives with a dent is a rejected handrail.
The RFQ checklist collects these fields for the whole car package, and the elevator component guides cover the frames the brackets ultimately fix to. If the grip profile is not settled, send a section sketch with the car wall build-up and we will come back with a formed section that suits the brake and the clearance.
When a formed handrail is the wrong part
A curved car wall needs a bent tube or a rolled profile, and we do not bend tube. A curved handrail quoted as a formed sheet section will arrive in facets, and the reflection will show every one of them.
A handrail that doubles as a crash rail in a goods lift needs a heavier section and a bracket designed for impact, not a passenger grip. That is a different part and a different calculation, and the drawing should say so.
And where the car uses glass or a composite cladding, the bracket cannot be fixed through the cladding. The fixing has to reach the car frame, which usually means a longer bracket and a slot in the cladding, both of which are better settled before the interior is ordered.
Send the car interior drawing through the elevator parts route with the wall build-up and the finish sample, and the handrail comes back as a formed section with the bracket layout included, not as a part to be detailed later.
Frequently asked questions
At what height is a lift car handrail mounted?
900 mm above the finished floor to the top of the grip, which is the height used in accessible lift design. Confirm it against the lift code your project is certified to, because retrofit cars sometimes use 850 mm.
What diameter should an elevator handrail be?
38–40 mm across the grip for a stainless round-section handrail, or a formed flat grip of 55–65 mm width and 25–30 mm depth. Below 30 mm the grip is uncomfortable for a full hand; above 45 mm the fingers do not close around it.
How far apart should handrail brackets be?
700 mm maximum, and no more than 150 mm from each free end. At 1,200 mm pitch a 1.5 mm stainless grip deflects about 2.3 mm under a 1 kN lean, which reads as a loose handrail.
Can the handrail be powder coated instead of stainless?
Yes. A 2.0 mm CRCA grip formed to the same profile and powder coated at 60–80 µm suits cars where the wall cladding is a colour. Stainless is specified where the car uses brushed metal and where cleaning chemicals would attack a film.
Why does a stainless handrail rust at the end cap?
Welding leaves heat tint and free iron on 304, and both are corrosion sites in a damp shaft. Dress the weld, remove the tint and passivate before the part goes near a lift shaft.
Sources and further reading
- IS 6911 — Stainless steel plate, sheet and strip, grades and tolerances · reviewed 3 Nov 2026
- ISO 8100-1:2019 — Lifts for the transport of persons and goods, safety rules for construction and installation · reviewed 3 Nov 2026
- ISO 9227:2017 — Corrosion tests in artificial atmospheres, salt spray test · reviewed 3 Nov 2026
Send the car interior drawing
Include the grip section, mounting height, bracket positions, material and finish. We review the forming route, weld sequence and finishing before quotation.
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