A belt includes one or more tension members extending along a length of the belt, and a jacket at least partially enclosing the plurality of tension members. The jacket includes an elastomeric material and a plurality of reinforcing elements located in the elastomeric material to improve fatigue cracking performance of the belt. An elevator system includes a hoistway, an elevator car located in the hoistway, and an elevator belt operably connected to the elevator car to suspend and/or drive the elevator car along the hoistway. The elevator belt includes one or more tension members extending along a length of the belt and a jacket at least partially enclosing the plurality of tension members. The jacket includes an elastomeric material and a plurality of reinforcing elements located in the elastomeric material to improve fatigue cracking performance of the belt.

A belt for suspending and/or driving an elevator car includes a plurality of tension elements extending along a length of the belt and a plurality of belt fibers transverse to the plurality of tension elements and interlaced therewith. The belt fibers define at least one traction surface of the belt. An edge fiber is located at a lateral end of the belt transverse to and secured to the plurality of belt fibers to secure the belt fibers in a selected position.

Flat belt apparatuses and methods are provided where one or more cords in the flat belt are tensioned or pre-tensioned to extend the service life of the flat belt.

A belt containing steel cords, the steel cords containing strands made of steel filaments wherein the largest diameter filaments are at least intermittently positioned at the radially outer side of the steel cord. Such a configuration can be obtained by using steel cord constructions wherein the thickest filaments are positioned outside of the steel cord which is contrary to the current practice. In a further embodiment the largest diameter filaments fill up some or all of the valleys of the strands at their radially outer side. These monofilaments thus have the same lay length and direction as the strands in the steel cord. The advantage of putting the largest filaments at the outside is that they will break first and thus will be readily detectable by electrical, magnetic or visual means. In this way a belt is provided that can be monitored easier and more conveniently than prior art belts.

An elevator tension member is presented that has one or more steel cords as strength members that are encased in a jacket of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer. The thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer is selected on the basis of its thermal properties in that the glass transition temperature of the hard phase (Tg HS) is above 90° C. In preferential embodiments that thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer has a crystallisation temperature (Tg) that is at least 20° C. higher than Tg HS. In other preferential embodiments the sum of Tg HS and Tc is higher than 200° C. Such thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers exhibit an unexpected increase in useful lifetime when compared to conventionally used polyurethanes. Moreover the invention provides a simple method to select an appropriate thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer.

An elevator system includes a hoistway, an elevator car movable along the hoistway, and one or more belts operably connected to the elevator car to propel the elevator car along the hoistway. A belt of the one or more belts includes one or more tension elements extending along a belt length, and a jacket at least partially encapsulating the one or more tension elements. The jacket includes a jacket base formed from a first material and one or more insert layers embedded in the jacket base material. The one or more insert layers have a corrugated shape along the belt length, and are formed from a second material different from the first material.

An elevator traction belt cleaning device and an elevator system. The elevator traction belt cleaning device includes: a set of slide rails installed to fixed positions in an elevator system; and a cleaning assembly having a cleaning opening for a traction belt to pass through, a sand removing member installed at the cleaning opening, and a set of slide blocks; in which the cleaning assembly is slidably installed between the set of slide rails through the set of slide blocks.

An elevator belt monitoring apparatus includes a housing for receiving an elevator belt and a plurality of blade contacts which are operable to pierce the belt and engage the spaced parallel cords arranged within the belt. A plurality of bridge contacts are connected with adjacent pairs of elevator belt cords and signal contacts are connected with cords at the outer edges of the belts. The signal contacts are connected with a monitoring device which sends and receives signals to the contacts to provide an indication of the condition or deterioration of the belt.

A load bearing tension member for an elevator system includes a plurality of tension elements arrayed across a tension member width. The tension elements are offset from a tension member central axis, the central axis bisecting a tension member thickness and extending across the tension member width. The tension elements include a plurality of fibers extending along a length of the tension element, and a matrix material in which the plurality of fibers are embedded. A jacket at least partially encapsulates the plurality of tension elements.

An elevator belt monitoring apparatus includes a housing for receiving an elevator belt and a plurality of blade contacts which are operable to pierce the belt and engage the spaced parallel cords arranged within the belt. A plurality of bridge contacts are connected with adjacent pairs of elevator belt cords and signal contacts are connected with cords at the outer edges of the belts. The signal contacts are connected with a monitoring device which sends and receives signals to the contacts to provide an indication of the condition or deterioration of the belt.