Elevator having a suspension

Abstract

An elevator includes a car, a counterweight, a suspension working together with the car and the counterweight, and a wheel at least partially wound around by the suspension. The suspension includes a tie beam arrangement with two tie beams and an encasing shell wherein a ratio of the width of the suspension to the height thereof is in a range between one and three. The wheel includes a flute having a flat base for guiding the suspension. When the suspension is unloaded, there is an air gap between the suspension and a guide region of the flute. The suspension is ovalized under loading to close the air gap. The shell is coated, at least in areas, on the outer surface thereof, wherein the coating optionally has a friction-reducing, friction-increasing, and/or wear-detecting effect.

Claims

1. An elevator having a car, a counterweight, a suspension coupling the car and the counterweight, a wheel contacted and at least partially looped by the suspension, and at least one drive for driving the car, the counterweight and the suspension, the elevator being arranged with the car, the counterweight, the suspension and the drive in a common shaft, comprising: the suspension having a cross section ratio of a width to a height being in a range of between one and three; the suspension extending longitudinally with a tie beam arrangement and a shell which encases the tie beam arrangement and forms an outer surface that contacts the wheel; the wheel having a flute in which the suspension is at least partially received, and a flute base of the flute, which is contacted by the suspension and is formed substantially planar, wherein said flute has a lateral guide region and a lateral inlet region, said guide region extending between said inlet region and said base, said guide region widening in a direction of said inlet region to form air gap between said guide region and a majority of a height of the suspension when unloaded, the suspension being widened under a loading force whereby the suspension is substantially adapted to said widened guide region closing said air gap, and wherein said guide region has a guide region radius larger than a suspension radius of the suspension when unloaded, the suspension being ovalized under the loading force whereby the suspension is substantially adapted to said guide region radius; and said shell is coated on at least a portion of said outer surface, said coating selectively having at least one of a friction-reducing, a friction-increasing and a wear-detecting effect when contacting the wheel.

2. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said tie beam arrangement includes at least two tie beams touching one another at a point.

3. The elevator according to claim 2 wherein said at least two tie beams include metallic wires formed into singly or multiply stranded steel cables, said at least two tie beams being laid in opposite directions.

4. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said tie beam arrangement includes tie beams having a diameter in a range between 1.25 mm and 8 mm.

5. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said tie beam arrangement includes tie beams having a diameter in a range between 1.5 mm and 2.5 mm.

6. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said outer surface of the suspension has at least one groove formed therein running in a longitudinal direction of the suspension.

7. The elevator according to claim 6 wherein said at least groove is positioned between two tie beams of the suspension.

8. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said at least one drive includes one of an asynchronous motor and a permanent magnet motor.

9. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said flute is partially coated.

10. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said flute has a flute base with an average roughness in a range of between 0.1 pm and 0.7 pm in a circumferential direction.

11. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said flute base has a surface with an average roughness in a range of between 0.2 pm and 0.6 pm in a circumferential direction.

12. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said flute base has a surface with an average roughness in a range of between 0.3 pm and 0.5 pm in a circumferential direction.

13. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said flute base has a surface with an average roughness in a range between 0.3 pm and 1.3 pm in an axial direction.

14. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said flute base has a surface with an average roughness in a range between 0.4 pm and 1.2 in an axial direction.

15. The elevator according to claim 1 wherein said flute base has a surface with an average roughness in a range between 0.5 pm and 1.1 pm in an axial direction.

16. An elevator having a car, a counterweight, a suspension coupling the car and the counterweight, a wheel contacted by the suspension, and a drive for driving the car, the counterweight and the suspension, comprising: the suspension having a tie beam arrangement and a shell which encases said tie beam arrangement, the suspension extending in a longitudinal direction with an outer surface contacting and partially looping around the wheel; the wheel having a flute in which the suspension is at least partially received, and a flute base of said flute being formed substantially planar and contacted by the suspension, wherein said flute has a lateral guide region and a lateral inlet region, said guide region extending between said inlet region and said base, said guide region widening in a direction of said inlet region to form air gap between said guide region and a majority of a height of the suspension when unloaded, the suspension being widened under a loading force whereby the suspension is substantially adapted to said widened guide region closing said air gap, and wherein said guide region has a guide region radius larger than a suspension radius of the suspension when unloaded, the suspension being ovalized under the loading force whereby the suspension is substantially adapted to said guide region radius; and the structure suspension having adjacent said outer surface a groove running in the longitudinal direction of the suspension.

17. The elevator according to claim 16 wherein said tie beam arrangement includes two tie beams and said groove is positioned between said tie beams.

18. The elevator according to claim 17 wherein said tie beams touch one another at a point.

19. The elevator according to claim 17 wherein said groove faces said base to provide a compression-free region between the base and said shell.

20. The elevator according to claim 17 wherein each of said tie beams is formed with the suspension radius.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Further advantages and features of the present invention emerge from the exemplary embodiments. In the drawings, some of which are schematized:

(2) FIG. 1 is a lateral cross section of an elevator according to one embodiment of the present invention;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a suspension with a suspension pick-up according to one embodiment of the present invention;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a suspension with a suspension pick-up according to a further embodiment of the present invention;

(5) FIG. 4 shows another suspension with a suspension pick-up according to a further embodiment of the present invention;

(6) FIG. 5 shows an alternative suspension with a suspension pick-up according to a further embodiment of the present invention;

(7) FIG. 6 shows another suspension with a suspension pick-up according to a further embodiment of the present invention;

(8) FIG. 7 shows a further alternative suspension with a suspension pick-up;

(9) FIG. 8 shows an alternative embodiment of a flute with a suspension; and

(10) FIG. 9 shows an arrangement of a suspension with a drive wheel according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

(11) Mutually corresponding components or features are denoted in the figures by identical reference numerals.

(12) FIG. 1 shows schematically an elevator according to one embodiment of the present invention. The elevator comprises a car 3 which can move along rails 5 in a shaft 1 and a counterweight 8 which is coupled to the car, moves in the opposite direction and is guided on a rail 7. A suspension 12, which will be described hereinafter in greater detail, is inertially fastened at one end at a first hang-up point 10 in the shaft 1. Starting from there, it loops around a deflection wheel 4.3, which is connected to the counterweight 8, through 180 and subsequently a drive wheel 4.1, also through 180. Starting from there, it loops, after twisting through 180 about its longitudinal axis, around two deflection wheels 4.2, which are integrated into the floor 6 of the car 3, in the same direction, in each case through 90, and is fastened at its other end at a second hang-up point 11 in the shaft 1. Between the two deflection wheels 4.2 connected to the car 3, two further deflection wheels 4.4, which each loop around the suspension 12 by about 12, tension the suspension against the car floor 6 and in this way improve guidance thereof in the deflection wheels 4.2. The drive wheel 4.1 of the elevator without a machine room is in this case driven by an asynchronous motor 2 arranged in the shaft 1 in order to hold or to lift the car 3 and the counterweight 8.

(13) FIG. 2 is a cross section of the upper half of the drive wheel 4.1 of the elevator from FIG. 1 and the suspension 12 looping around the drive wheel.

(14) The suspension 12 has two lateral tie beams 14, i.e. tie beams arranged axially next to each other with respect to the drive wheel, which each consist of nine interstranded braids. The core strand is in this case produced in three layers from nineteen interstranded steel wires and surrounded by eight two-layered outer braids each stranded from seven steel wires. The two tie beams 14 are laid in opposite directions. For this purpose, the outer braids of one tie beam are laid around the respective core braid to the right, those of the other to the left. This counteracts turning of the suspension 12.

(15) The tie beams 14 have in this case a diameter of about 2.5 mm. This allows advantageously much smaller radii of deflection, and thus smaller drive and deflection wheels, to be achieved while maintaining an advantageous diameter ratio of D/d40, for example, wherein D denotes the diameter of the drive wheel and d denotes the diameter of a steel cable; this advantageously reduces the overall space required by the elevator. It goes without saying that even smaller diameter ratios can be achieved using high-strength tie beams.

(16) The two tie beams 14 are embedded in a shell 13 made of EPDM. The shell has an outer surface 13.1 following substantially the outer contour 14.1, indicated by dashed lines in FIG. 2, of the two tie beams 14. As these tie beams arranged next to each other each have a substantially circular outer contour 14.1, the outer surface 13.1 has in cross section substantially the shape of a horizontal hourglass, a groove 13.2 being formed on the two wide sides (top, bottom in FIGS. 2, 3) in the longitudinal direction of the suspension 12.

(17) As a result, the wall thickness of the shell 13 surrounding the tie beams 14 is advantageously the same substantially everywhere, leading to an improved distribution of tension in the suspension 12. At the same time, the grooves 13.2 facilitate a slight internal movement of the tie beams 14 in the shell 13 in relation to one another, so that transverse forces in the tie beam 12 can be reduced. However, it may also be desired for the tie beams 12 to be securely embedded in the shell 13. Accordingly, a shell material or a production method is selected allowing the shell material to be effectively bound into the tie beam.

(18) On account of its construction, the tie beam 12 has a ratio of its width B in the axial direction of the drive wheel 4.1 to its height H in the radial direction of the drive wheel 4.1 of two. Equally, this ensures small radii of deflection and nevertheless sufficient flexibility of the suspension, in particular in its width direction. This increases in particular also the ease of installation of the more flexible suspension 12 which can be applied to the wheels 4.1 to 4.4 more easily. In order to increase the ease of installation still further, the suspension is embodied symmetrically with respect to its transverse or vertical axis which is positioned perpendicularly to its longitudinal direction and runs in the width or vertical direction, so that it can also be applied turned through 180 and can loop around successive wheels in opposite directions with identical outer surface contours.

(19) The suspension 12 is received in a flute 15 of the drive wheel 4.1 in such a way that it is in the example positioned almost completely within the flute 15, touches the two lateral flanks or the inlet region 15.2 (left, right in FIG. 2) of the flute 15 and rests on the flute base 15.1 of the flute. The flute base 15.1, which is looped around by the suspension 12 in this way, is embodied in a planar or flat manner. This facilitates the above-described internal movement of the suspension 12, so that transverse forces in the suspension 12, and thus wear of the suspension 12 and the drive wheel 4.1, are reduced.

(20) The deflection wheels 4.2 to 4.4 have precisely such flutes which have a planar flute base (not shown) and in which the suspension 12, which loops around the deflection wheels 4.2 to 4.4, is received in each case in the same manner as was described for the drive wheel 4.1 with reference to FIG. 2.

(21) FIG. 3 shows a suspension 12 such as is already known from FIG. 2. In this example, the suspension 12 is, again, received in a flute 15 of the drive wheel 4.1. The flute 15 contains the flute base 15.1, a lateral guide region 15.3 and a lateral inlet region 15.2. The flute base is designed in a flat or planar manner. The flute 15 follows roughly the shape of the suspension 12 at the edges of the suspension on both sides. The inlet region 15.2 is not in contact with the suspension via the looping region. The inlet region 15.2 merges with the guide region 15.3 which is in contact with the suspension 12 via the looping region. This means that the flute follows, at its lateral boundaries corresponding to the wide side of the suspension 12, the structure of the suspension; the flute base 15.1 extending between these lateral boundaries is planar; it does not display any intermediate elevations. In FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, which will be described hereinafter, the guide region 15.3 is in practice dispensed with, as the insertion region 15.2 and the flute base 15.1 strike each other substantially directly. If the flute 15 of a drive wheel is provided with surfaces influencing the coefficient of friction, for example, the insertion region 15.2 is advantageously designed so as to reduce the coefficient of friction and the flute base 15.1 is designed so as to increase the coefficient of friction, the guide region 15.3 is embodied as a transition. The part positioned close to the insertion region 15.2 is designed so as to reduce the coefficient of friction and the part positioned close to the flute base 15.1 is designed so as to increase the coefficient of friction; this allows safe transmission of traction from the flute to the suspension and at the same time the lateral guidance is designed so as to be as friction-free as possible.

(22) Now, FIG. 4 shows a modification of the drive wheel 4.1 of the elevator which is shown in FIG. 1 and is looped around by a suspension 12 according to a further embodiment of the present invention. Only the differences from the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 3 will be examined hereinafter.

(23) The shell 13 of the suspension 12 according to the further embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 4 is embodied in a trapezoidal manner. In particular, the shell regions, which each surround a tie beam 14, have a trapezoidal cross section on mutually opposing wide sides (top, bottom in FIG. 4) of the suspension 12. Thus, both the two grooves 13.2 formed between the tie beams 14 and the adjoining regions of the outer surface 13.1 of the suspension 12 have a trapezoidal cross section on both wide sides. The mutually opposing narrow sides (left, right in FIG. 4) of the suspension 12 are thus likewise embodied in a trapezoidal manner and are at an angle in relation to the radial direction of the drive wheel 4.1.

(24) The flanks 15.2, which oppose one another in the axial direction, of the flute 15 formed in the drive wheel 4.1 are inclined by the same angle in relation to the radial direction, so that the suspension 12, which is received in the flute 15 having a trapezoidal cross section, rests on these flanks 15.2 with its outer oblique faces facing the drive wheel 4.1. As a result of the wedging effect thereby caused, the driving capacity is advantageously increased while the initial tension remains the same.

(25) As indicated in the figures, the suspension does not have to be completely received in the flute 15 in the radial direction, but can protrude radially outward beyond the flute. However, in a modification (not shown), the suspension 12 is completely received in the flute 15 in order to protect it from damage.

(26) FIG. 5 shows an alternative embodiment of the suspension 12 based on the embodiment according to FIG. 3. According to this embodiment, the two tie beams 14 touch each other at least at certain points. An outer contour of the individual tie beam 14 is naturally structured, as the tie beam 14 is composed of individual wires. The two tie beams 14 are now pushed together only to the extent that the outermost wires touch one another. The groove 13.2 or a depression is located in the shell region between the two tie beams. The flute base 15.1 of the flute 15 of the drive wheel 4.1 is planar. Via a region R of the flute base, compression between the flute base 15.1 and shell 13 is accordingly low. The illustrated suspension has the width B and the proportion (R/B) of the compression-free region R is about 30% in the illustrated example.

(27) Now, FIG. 6 shows a combination of the embodiments according to FIG. 4 and the tie beam arrangement according to FIG. 5. The groove 13.2 allows the shell material 13 to be adapted slightly in accordance with an effective flute width and shape. Minor deviations are obtained as a result of manufacturing tolerances of the parts involved such as the drive wheel 4.1 and suspension 12. This not only becomes valid as a result of the embodiment according to FIG. 6; it applies to all the illustrated embodiments.

(28) FIG. 7 shows a further embodiment of the suspension 12 which is received in a flute 15 having a planar flute base 15.1. In this embodiment of the suspension 12, the groove 13.2 or a channel is arranged just below the outer surface 13.1 of the suspension 12. This also allows a transverse contraction, while the compression of the suspension is concentrated in the region of the tie beams 14 and a central region R of the suspension 12 remains uncompressed.

(29) FIG. 8 shows a further embodiment of the flute 15 having a planar flute base 15.1 for receiving the suspension 12. The guide region 15.3 is widened in the direction of the inlet region 15.2 in such a way that an air gap 19 is left between the guide region 15.3 and the unloaded suspension 12. This is advantageously achieved in that a guide region radius RR of the guide region 15.3 is larger than a suspension radius RT of the unloaded suspension 12. The suspension 12 is deformed under loading. The shape produced under loading is obtained as a result of a tensile stress, which is produced by way of example by a car load hanging from the suspension, and a flexural stress which results from the suspension being placed around the drive wheel 4.1. Now, the widening of the guide region 15.3 enables the suspension to assume a natural shape freely, without restrictive transverse movements, under loading.

(30) Advantageously, the guide region radius RR or the widened guide region 15.3 is designed in such a way that the suspension 12 can ovalize, in the event of a deflection via the drive wheel 4.1 under a loading force which is normally to be expected, in such a way that it is substantially adapted to the guide region radius RR or the widened guide region 15.3. The loading force which is normally to be expected generally corresponds to a normal operating state of the elevator installation. This enables the suspension 12 in the loaded state, when it runs around the drive wheel 4.1 under force, to be ovalized or obtained such as is illustrated in FIG. 8 by dashed line 12.1. As a result, the suspension 12 is not impeded in the transverse contraction; this reduces lateral wear while the suspension is centered in the flute 15 as a result of the shape of the guide region.

(31) FIG. 9 shows schematically a drive such as could be used in an elevator according to FIG. 1. A motor 2 drives a drive wheel 4.1 which in the illustrated example is integrated directly into a spindle of the drive or the motor 2. The drive wheel 4.1 has a plurality of flutes 15, a suspension 12 being placed in each of the flutes 15. The flute base 15.1 is planar and it merges with the lateral insertion regions 15.2 by means of the radius. The radius corresponds roughly to an outer shape of the suspension in this region. The number of flutes or suspensions required is determined by a carrying force of the suspension and the weight of the car or counterweight.

(32) The foregoing explanations have been given predominantly in relation to a drive wheel 4.1. They apply analogously also to deflection rollers 4.2, 4.3, 4.4. It goes without saying that the embodiments shown are combinable. Thus, the suspensions 12 of the exemplary embodiments according to FIGS. 2 to 6 can of course also be provided with grooves 13.2 or a channel positioned just below the outer surface 13.1 of the suspension 12 and the outer contours of the suspension 12 can be varied by the person skilled in the art. The outer contour may in particular also be oval, ribbed or corrugated, or both symmetrical and unsymmetrical outer surfaces 13.1 or sheathings may be used. Furthermore, the ovalized flute shape according to FIG. 8 may also be applied to other outer contours.

(33) In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, the present invention has been described in what is considered to represent its preferred embodiment. However, it should be noted that the invention can be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described without departing from its spirit or scope.