An apparatus and method for an elevator system includes an elevator car that is supported for movement within a hoistway by at least one suspension member and a counterweight that is coupled to the elevator car with the at least one suspension member. The at least one suspension member is supported on a machine sheave at a location between the elevator car and the counterweight. The system detects a presence of one of the counterweight or elevator car as an initial detection, and subsequently detects a presence of the other of the counterweight or the elevator car as a subsequent detection. The system then determines an amount of travel of the elevator car that occurs between the initial detection and the subsequent detection to determine an amount of elongation of the at least one suspension member.

A method and an apparatus monitor the physical state of a suspension means that is connected to an elevator car and can move the same. The support means has markings along its length that divide the support means into segments. The strain difference of the suspension means is monitored segment by segment using a first strain at a first load and a second strain at a second load being determined by a signal processing unit from a distance between two selected markings detected by a detection device, and a strain difference representing the elastic behavior of the segment is calculated from the two strains, wherein the load acting on the suspension means between the two selected markings is measured by a load measuring device.

A method for inspecting twist of wire ropes is provided. The wire ropes support an elevator car, and each of the wire ropes includes a plurality of strands. The method is to be implemented by a processor and includes steps of: obtaining, for each of the wire ropes during movement of the elevator car, a number of strand segments that are present within a predetermined length of the wire rope; and comparing the numbers of strand segments that are obtained respectively for the wire ropes for analyzing the twist of the wire ropes, wherein the wire ropes are determined as having equal extent of twist when it is determined that the numbers of strand segments are identical, and the wire ropes are determined as having distinct extent of twist when it is determined that the numbers of strand segments are different from each other.

An elevator system for monitoring a condition inside an elevator shaft of the elevator system if provide, the system comprises: at least one image sensor and a control unit configured to receive the image data from the at least one image sensor, and is further configured to: determine an indicator value indicative of a presence of foreign matter in the elevator shaft; compare the indicator value to a reference value; and set a detection result to express one of the following: (i) the condition inside the elevator shaft is acceptable, (ii) the condition inside the elevator shaft is unacceptable. Also a method, a control unit and a computer program are provided.