EP0491632B1 - Disengageable telpher carrier or chairlift with two cable loops - Google Patents

Abstract

The lifting and pulling cable (10) of a telpher carrier or chairlift with disengageable carriers is subdivided into two loops (18, 19) at the interface between which there is a technical relay (20) with two return pulleys (21, 22). Connecting rails (23, 24) enable the carriers to be transferred from one loop to the other by providing a shunt between the return pulleys of the technical relay (20). The transfer involves no deceleration or notable deviation. <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a gondola or chairlift according to the preamble of claim 1.

The document EP-A-0 179 708 relates to a gondola of the kind mentioned, having two successive sections and an intermediate station arranged between these two sections. Each section constitutes an independent installation with its carrier-tractor cable and its drive motor, and at the entrance to the stations, in particular the intermediate station, the cabins are uncoupled from the cable and slowed down for disembarking and / or boarding passengers.

The intermediate station of this known gondola has a half-loop return rail to re-couple the cabins, at the exit of the station after re-acceleration, to the return strand of the cable of the same section and a connecting rail between the two sections, which allows the transfer from the cabin to the next section where it is accelerated before being coupled to the cable. Passengers can stay in their cabin and travel the two successive sections. The presence of an intermediate station complicates the installation and increases the cost and the slowing down of the cabins in the intermediate station lengthens the journey time by imposing unpleasant braking and re-acceleration on the passengers.

Transport facilities of the type mentioned with detachable cabins or seats, hereinafter called cabins, allow high transport throughputs with light infrastructure and they are used more and more frequently. The increase in loads, in this case the size and number of cabins, as well as the lengths of the installations with significant differences in level imply significant sections of the carrier-tractor cable. These large sections create certain difficulties, in particular passing over the pulleys, the cable being too rigid.

The present invention aims to allow the realization of a gondola or chairlift retaining the simplicity, speed and layout of a conventional installation, while using a carrier cable tractor reduced section and this goal is achieved by implementing the features mentioned in the claims.

By inserting a technical relay into the line and dividing the cable into two parts, each forming a closed loop, which extends respectively between the downstream station and the technical relay and between the technical relay and the lover station, it is possible to reduce the cable cross-section significantly without any other modification to the installation.

The technical relay according to the invention comprises only the short connecting rails between the two loops and the passage from one loop to the other takes place at normal speed. The technical relay is supported by one or more standard pylons.

The technical relay also does not have a cable drive motor, this or these motors being arranged in the end stations.

The document EP-A-0 015 211 relates to a material conveyor with several successive sections, in which the return station of a section is connected to the drive station of the next section by rails for the transfer of wagons of a section to the other. To compensate for a temporary failure of one of the sections, provision is made for an intermediate storage possibility, of course associated with hoppers for emptying and loading the wagons, which travel at normal speed. These two adjacent stations include a drive motor and a stabilization motor and their structure is therefore identical or comparable to that of the end stations.

Document DE-A-630 022 relates to a mechanism for driving two cable loops at different speeds from one or two motors.

According to a development of the invention, the two loops are driven by the same motor, for example arranged in the downstream end station and driving the end pulley, and the return pulleys in the technical relay are mechanically coupled to transmit motive power from one loop to another. The two deflection pulleys can be carried by the same vertical shaft or even constitute a one-piece pulley with two grooves. They can also be spaced apart and be coupled by a kinematic chain of motion transmission.

Each loop can have its tension system, but this system is preferably common to the two loops, by providing in the technical relay a voltage transfer from one loop to the other and a voltage recovery. For this purpose, the return pulleys are carried by a carriage sliding in the direction of the cable and a tension take-up jack biases the carriage in the direction of the loop cooperating with the tension system.

The connecting rails extend rectilinear in the extension of the cable and the deflection pulleys are offset downward to free the template for the passage of the support carriages of the cabins which roll on the connecting rails. These carriages disengaged from the cable are driven by any suitable means, in particular by a train of pneumatic wheels disposed along the connecting rail to frictionally engage the carriage. The wheel drive is derived from the cable in order to avoid any source of power in the technical relay.

• la figure 1 est une vue schématique en perspective du tracé de la ligne d'une télécabine connue;
• la figure 2 est une vue analogue à celle de la fig. 1, montrant le tracé d'une télécabine selon l'invention;
• la figure 3 analogue à la fig. 2, illustre une variante de réalisation;
• les figures 4 et 5 sont des vues respectivement en élévation et en plan d'un relais technique selon l'invention;
• les figures 6 et 7 et les figures 8 et 9 sont respectivement des vues analogues aux fig. 4 et 5, illustrant des variantes de réalisation.

Other advantages and characteristics of the invention will emerge more clearly from the description which follows of an embodiment of the invention, given by way of nonlimiting example and shown in the appended drawings, in which:

• Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of the layout of the line of a known gondola;
• Figure 2 is a view similar to that of FIG. 1, showing the route of a gondola according to the invention;
• Figure 3 similar to fig. 2, illustrates an alternative embodiment;
• Figures 4 and 5 are views respectively in elevation and in plan of a technical relay according to the invention;
• Figures 6 and 7 and Figures 8 and 9 are respectively views similar to Figs. 4 and 5, illustrating alternative embodiments.

In the figures, a carrier-tractor cable 10 of an overhead cable transport installation, in particular of a gondola or chairlift, hereinafter called gondola, extends in a closed circuit between a downstream end station 11 and an upstream end station 12, passing over end pulleys 13, 14, arranged in these stations 11, 12. The cable 10 is supported by rollers 15 for support and compression carried by pylons P. Cabins 17 are coupled to cable 10 by means of carriages 16 with disengageable clamps, which open at the entrance to station 11, 12 to decouple cabins 17 from cable 10. Cabins 17 circulate in stations 11, 12 on transfer rails (not shown) at reduced speed, for boarding and disembarking passengers, before being re-accelerated and re-coupled to cable 10 at the station exit on the cable return strand. Such gondolas are well known and the section of the cable 10 is determined according to various factors, including the difference in height h between the stations 11, 12 and the load, in particular the weight and the number of cabins 17 in line, are the essential factors. .

According to the invention, the cable 10 is subdivided into two loops 18, 19, one of which downstream 18 extends in a closed circuit between the downstream station 11 and a technical relay 20 and the other of which upstream 19 extends between the technical relay 20 and the upstream station 12. The loops 18, 19 each pass over a return pulley 21, 22 of the technical station and it is understood that the difference in level crossed by each loop is a fraction of the difference in height h of the gondola. The section of the cable 10 can thus be notably reduced.

The technical relay 20 has two connecting rails 23, 24, which connect the two loops 18, 19 by shunting the idler pulleys 21, 22 and the declutching and clutching devices (not shown) of the carriages 16, respectively at the inlet and outlet of the connecting rails 23, 24 , in a manner analogous to that of the transfer rails in stations 11, 12, well known to specialists.

In the embodiment, illustrated by FIGS. 2, 4 and 5, the return pulleys 21, 22 are arranged one after the other, their axes 25, 26 being slightly spaced in the direction of the line and mechanically coupled by a shaft 27, so as to rotate in synchronism in the same direction. The two loops 18, 19 thus travel at the same speed while being driven by a motor (not shown) coupled to one of the end pulleys, for example to the downstream pulley 13. It should be noted that each loop 18, 19 may include a drive motor, the synchronism being ensured by any suitable means, in particular by a connection between the return pulleys 21, 22.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, the deflection pulleys 21, 22, carried by pylons P3, P3 ′, are slightly offset downwards and the connecting rails 23, 24 are rectilinear in the extension of the loops 18, 19, for maintain a uniform trajectory of the cabins 17. The axes 25, 26 are inclined and rollers 15 deflect the cable 10 in the plane of the return pulleys 21, 22 so as not to interfere with the trajectory of the carriages 16 of the cabins 17, a well-known way.

The connecting rails 23, 24 are carried by pylons P1, P2, P2 ′, P1 ′ and are equipped with drive means, in this case tire wheel trains 28, which frictionally engage the carriages 16 which roll on the connecting rails 23, 24 while uncoupled from the cable 10. These wheels 28, driven by any suitable means, in particular by a power take-off (not shown) on the cable 10, rotate at the speed of the cable 10 and the cabins 17 pass through the technical relay 20 without slowing down and without changing direction.

The return pulleys 21, 22 can be mounted on the same vertical shaft 29 or be constituted by a single pulley with two superimposed grooves, each associated with one of the loops 18, 19 (fig. 3, 6-8). The return pulleys 21, 22 can be in the plane of the loops 18, 19 and the connecting rails 23, 24 are in this case deflected upwards or, as illustrated in FIGS. 6-8, the offsets are shared, the pulleys 21, 22 being slightly offset downwards and the rails upwards. The operation of the technical relay 20 is not modified by these provisions.

Each loop 18, 19 may have its own tension system, which cooperates with the respective end pulleys 13, 14, but in a preferred embodiment, shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a common tension system with counterweight or with a cylinder cooperates with the end pulley 14, for example of the upstream station 12. The return pulleys 21, 22 are carried by a carriage 30, which rolls on a track 31 parallel to the direction of the cable 10. This track 31 is carried by the pylons P3, P3 ′ of the technical relay 20 and the carriage 30 transmits the voltage from one loop 19 to the other 18. A jack 32 biases the carriage 30 in the direction of the loop 19 for a voltage recovery and thus a sharing of efforts.

The operation of the technical relay 20 is apparent from the previous presentation:
A cabin 17 transported by the loop 18 arrives at the technical relay 20 and its carriage 16 passes over the connecting rail 23, while the cable coupling clamp 10 is open. The cabin 17 continues its race by being driven by the pneumatic wheels 28 towards the loop 19, to which it is coupled by closing the clamp at the end of the connecting rail 23. In the same way the descending cabins 17 pass the technical relay 20 while rolling on the other connecting rail 24. The passage of the technical relay 20 is carried out without slowing down and without any noticeable change of route, which avoids oscillations and jolts of the cabin 17. The technical relay 20 does not include any complicated and expensive infrastructure and its implementation hardly imposes constraints. It is not necessarily mid-course and it allows a change of direction if care is taken to strengthen the anchors.

Claims (10)

1. Gondola lift or chair lift connecting two end stations (11,12) and having a continuously running hauling-carrier cable (10) and cabins (17) or chairs coupled with the cable on the circuit and detached at the entrance of the stations, each of said stations (11,12) having an end wheel (13,14) whereon the cable passes, a transfer circuit whereon the cabins run at low speed before recoupling to the sable at the station exit and passenger embarking and/or disembarking areas, said cable being constituted by a first (18) and second (19) loop extending one after the other and passing on bull wheels (21,22) located at the interface of the two loops, which loops (18,19) are linked by two rails (23,24), shunting the bull wheels (21,22) for the passage of the cabins (17) from one loop to the other and recoupling of the cabins on the other loop, characterized in that said bull wheels (21,22) and said transfer rails (23,24) constitute a technical relay (20) without embarking and/or disembarking areas, that said technical relay (20) comprises cabin (17) driving means along said transfer rails (23,24) at a speed corresponding substantially to the sable speed and that the two loops are driven from one or the two end wheels.
2. Gondola lift or chair lift according to claim 1, characterized in that only one end wheel (13) is driven by a motor and that the technical relay (20) comprises driving power transfer means (25,26,27) from the loop (18) driven by the drive end wheel to the other loop (19).
3. Gondola lift or chair lift according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said two bull wheels (21,22) are mounted on the same axis (29) and are mechanically coupled for rotating at the same speed or are constituted by a wheel having two superposed grooves.
4. Gondola lift or chair lift according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the two bull wheels (21,22) are disposed adjacent to each other in the cabin (17) moving direction and that a cinematic transmission chain (25,26,27) couples the two bull wheels to provide the same bull wheels rotation speed.
5. Gondola lift or chair lift according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the transfer rails (23,24) are in alignment with the cable (10) for transferring the cabins (17) from one loop to the other without a notable deviation.
6. Gondola lift or chair lift according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cabin driving means (28) are associated with the transfer rails (23,24) for driving the cabins at the speed of the cable (10).
7. Gondola lift or chair lift according to claim 6, characterized in that said driving means are sheaves trains with tyres (28) which frictionally drive the cabin, their driving power being derivated from the driving loop (18,19) power.
8. Gondola lift or chair lift according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that only one end wheel is devised as cable tensioning wheel and that said technical relay (20) comprises tensioning transfer means (30) from the loop passing on the tensioning end wheel to the other loop.
9. Gondola lift or chair lift according to claim 8, characterized in that the technical relay (20) comprises a tension pick-up device, particularly a jack (32) for picking-up the tension of the loop which has not a tensioning end wheel.
10. Gondola lift or chair lift according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the technical relay (20) is supported by towers (P).

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