EP0811575A2

EP0811575A2 - Elevator for spiral staircase

Info

Publication number: EP0811575A2
Application number: EP97830269A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Giovanni Faccioli
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1996-06-04
Filing date: 1997-06-03
Publication date: 1997-12-10
Also published as: EP0811575A3

Abstract

An elevator for spiral staircase, comprising a user accommodation platform (2) which is meant to move along a helical path above the steps of said staircase (1), characterized in that it comprises a truck for supporting said platform, said truck being associated with the inside of a tubular guide which has a circular cross-section (3) and is located at the axis of the staircase (1) so that said truck can slide and rotate in contact with said guide, said carriage having means for producing its translatory motion along the axis of said tubular guide, a slider (10) being also provided which is rigidly coupled to the platform (2) and is kinematically connected to a helical guide (11) which follows the path of the spiral staircase (1).

Description

The present invention relates to an elevator for a spiral staircase.
It is known that there are devices, termed elevators, which comprise a platform which is moved so as to skim the steps and allows to accommodate a disabled person, who is thus carried along the staircase.
It is easily noted that in the case of spiral staircases, however, currently available elevators have a complex configuration, particularly in the elements for moving the platform, which must travel along a helical path.
The platform comprises a wing which is hinged on one side and moves from an inclined position, assumed during the movement of the device, to a substantially horizontal position, so as to form a bridge between the platform and the landing which is at the top of the flight of stairs, so as to facilitate the transfer of the user.
With the conventional configuration of the landing and of the steps, which is substantially a circular sector, said wing becomes considerably large, with an increase in weight and cost and with the consequence that when the platform is placed in a vertical position to allow normal use of the staircase, said use is severely impaired.
Another drawback of the prior art resides in the fact that when the staircase runs through a plurality of floors, the motion of the elevator platform has a discontinuity in its inclination, with significant problems for the movement device, at the intermediate landings, which are shaped like a circular sector which is larger than the steps.
The aim of the present invention is to provide an elevator for spiral staircase which is very simple, so as to ensure low costs and reliability in operation.
Within the scope of this aim, an object of the invention is to provide a spiral staircase equipped with an elevator which allows to produce a platform which has a compact wing and is actuated by a movement device with a constant inclination even over a plurality of floors, without variations at the intermediate landings.
The proposed aim is achieved by an elevator for spiral staircases, according to the invention, which comprises a user accommodation platform which is meant to move in a helical fashion over the steps of said staircase, characterized in that it comprises a truck for supporting said platform which is associated with the inside of a tubular guide which has a circular cross-section and is located at the axis of the staircase so that it can slide and rotate in contact therewith, and is provided with means for causing its translatory motion along the axis of said tubular guide, a slider being furthermore provided which is rigidly coupled to the platform and is kinematically connected to a helical guide which follows the path of the spiral staircase.
Advantageously, the spiral staircase provided with an elevator according to the invention, comprising at least one flight of stairs which has a landing at the top, is characterized in that in each landing the front edge, in the region proximate to the central axis, has such a shape as to give the walkable portion of said landing substantially the shape of a circular sector in said region and does not maintain said shape in the region proximate to the peripheral portion, so as to widen the walkable portion of the landing more than would occur if said circular sector shape were maintained; the configuration of the front edge of a plurality of steps that descend from said landing being such as to produce, in the region proximate to the central axis, a shape of the walkable portion thereof which is substantially a circular sector and is identical to the shape of said landing, the variation with respect to said configuration in the region proximate to the peripheral portion gradually decreasing, until it becomes nil, for all the remaining steps of the flight, which are therefore shaped substantially like a circular sector along their entire extension.
Further characteristics and advantages will become apparent from the description of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment of the invention, illustrated only by way of non-limitative example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

figure 1 is a view of the invention applied to a staircase;
figure 2 is a view of the detail of the lower truck half, taken along the plane II-II of figure 3;
figure 3 is a sectional view, taken along the plane III-III of figure 2;
figure 4 is a perspective view, illustrating only the configuration of the last steps before a landing of a staircase according to the invention;
figure 5 is a plan view of the staircase shown in figure 4, with an indication of the bulk of a platform.

With reference to the above figures 1, 2 and 3, the reference numeral 1 designates a spiral staircase provided with the device according to the invention, which comprises the user accommodation platform 2, which is meant to move along a helical path over the steps, such as la, of said staircase.
Inside the tubular guide 3, which has a circular cross-section and is located at the axis of the staircase 1, there is the truck formed by the two truck halves 4 and 5, which are provided respectively with the tabs 4a, 5a which connect to the platform 2 by passing through the helical slot 3a.
Said truck is associated with the guide 3 so that it can slide and rotate in contact therewith, and is provided with means which are adapted to cause its translatory motion along the axis of said guide; said means comprise a fluid-actuated cylinder, not shown in the figures, which is located at the base of the guide 3 and in which the piston stem, designated by the reference numeral 6, is provided at its end with the disk 7 on which the lower truck half 4 rests in a manner described hereafter.
The annular element 8, made of antifriction material, is thus present in contact with said disk 7; the overlying disk 9 is provided with means for the resting of the lower truck half 4 which are constituted by the feet 9a, 9b, 9c and 9d.
The reference numeral 10 designates a slider which is rigidly coupled to the platform 2 and can slide along the helical guide 11 which follows the configuration of the spiral staircase 1.
The actuation of the fluid-actuated cylinder with the stem 6 produces the translatory motion, inside the tubular guide 3, of the truck that supports the platform 2, which performs the intended helical motion induced by the contact of the slider 10 with the guide 11 because of the fact that said truck can, as mentioned, not only perform a translatory motion but also rotate inside said guide 3.
The two truck halves 4 and 5 are now to be described; they are identical and therefore only the lower truck half 4 is described with reference to figures 2 and 3.
Said truck half comprises the four L- shaped elements 12, 13, 14 and 15, which rest respectively on the feet 9a, 9b, 9c and 9d and which are mutually connected by means of bolts such as 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d which support, so that they are arranged side by side and appropriately spaced by the blocks 17, 18 and 19, the pairs of plates 20a and 20b, 21a and 21b, 22a and 22b, which in turn support the shafts 23 and 24, 25 and 26, 27 and 28 of three pairs of wheels, designated by the reference numerals 23a and 24a, 25a and 26a, 27a and 28a.
Said wheels are in contact with the inside wall of the guide 3 and, thanks to their distribution, ensure optimum operating conditions with a good load distribution; they are barrel-shaped in order to allow not only the translatory motion of the truck along the axis of the guide 3 but also the rotation thereof about said axis.
Three of the interspaces between the L-shaped elements are thus occupied by the pairs of wheels; at the fourth interspace, said L-shaped elements support the tab 4a, which is connected to the platform 2 by being folded appropriately.
From the above description, the great simplicity of the invention is thus evident; it can be manufactured and installed with very low costs and offers maximum operating reliability.
The described elements of the invention are susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the inventive concept: thus, for example, the slider rigidly coupled to the platform can be kinematically coupled in any manner to the helical guide which follows the configuration of the spiral staircase, and in turn said guide can be associated with said staircase in any manner.
Of course, the supporting truck of the platform, which is meant to perform a translatory motion and rotation inside the guide, can also assume a configuration other than the one described, and this also applies to the means meant to cause the translatory motion of said truck.
With reference to figures 4 and 5, the configuration of the last steps before a landing of a staircase according to the invention is now described; the illustration of the helical guide, such as 11, is omitted for the sake of simplicity.
In said figures, the reference numeral 29 designates a landing which is located at the top of a flight of stairs which has final steps 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34 and is followed by an additional flight of stairs, the step 35 of which is visible; the landing and the steps are connected to a central post 36, which contains a device for moving an elevator platform which is described hereinafter.
While in the prior art all the steps are substantially shaped like a circular sector as the steps 34 and 35 and the landing also has the shape of a simply wider circular sector, the staircase according to the invention has the following characteristics.
The front edge of the landing 29 has a portion 29a with such a configuration as to give the walkable portion thereof, which is delimited in a rearward region by the projection of the front edge 35a of the overlying step 35, the circular sector-like shape of the steps 34 and 35, with the same dimensions, in the region close to the post 36.
The portion 29b of said front edge does not maintain the configuration of the portion 29a, so as to widen, in the peripheral portion, the walkable landing portion more than would occur if said circular sector-like shape were maintained; in the case shown in the figure, the length of the portion 29c which allows to connect the landing 29 to the adjacent floor is twice the length which would occur if the front edge of said landing followed the configuration 29a throughout.
The front edges of the steps 30, 31, 32 have a portion 30a, 31a, 32a in the region proximate to the post 36 which has a configuration that gives said steps, in said region, the substantially circular sector-like shape of the steps 34 and 35 and of the landing 29, with the same dimensions; said edges have, in the peripheral portion, a portion 30b, 31b, 32b in which the variation with respect to the respective portions 30a, 31a, 32a gradually decreases until it becomes nil: the front edge 33a of the step 33 in fact has a straight-line configuration, like the front edge 34a of the step 34 and like the remaining steps of the flight of stairs, which are not shown in the figure down to the lowermost step.
It should be noted that the variation of the configuration of the portions 30b, 31b, 32b with respect to the portions 30a, 31a, 32a is caused by the need to maintain a sufficiently large walkable space of the individual steps, which is reduced if compared with that of the steps such as 34, which have the conventional circular sector-like shape; one of the effects of this reduction which is particularly evident in figure 5 is the fact that the outer edge of the steps 30, 31, 32, 33 is delimited by two handrail posts such as 37 and 38 for the step 33, whilst the outer edge of the step 34 is delimited by three posts 39, 40, 41.
As regards the rear edge of the landing and of the steps, we merely note that for evident savings-related and aesthetic reasons it follows the configuration of the front edge of the overlying step: this fact is evident in figure 5, which shows the rear edges of the individual steps in dashed lines.
Said figure 5 also clearly shows the high functionality of the invention: in said figure, the reference numeral 42 designates the footprint of the elevator platform in the position in which it is aligned with the landing 29; the reduced size of the wing 43, shown in its horizontal arrangement so as to act as a bridge between said platform and said landing on which it rests, is immediately evident.
Moreover, the fact that the landing 29 has, in the region proximate to the central post 36, a circular sector-like shape which is identical to the shape of the steps allows to give the elevator platform a helical path which has a constant inclination.
The described staircase is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the inventive concept; thus, for example, the number of steps that have the described contour may be any.
In the practical execution of the invention, all the details may be replaced with other technically equivalent elements; moreover, the materials employed, as well as the shapes and the dimensions, may be any according to requirements.
Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly, such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the interpretation of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.

Claims

An elevator for spiral staircase, comprising a user accommodation platform which is meant to move along a helical path above the steps of said staircase, characterized in that it comprises a truck for supporting said platform, said truck being associated with the inside of a tubular guide which has a circular cross-section and is located at the axis of the staircase so that said truck can slide and rotate in contact with said guide, said carriage having means for producing its translatory motion along the axis of said tubular guide, a slider being also provided which is rigidly coupled to the platform and is kinematically connected to a helical guide which follows the path of the spiral staircase.
An elevator according to claim 1, characterized in that the truck that supports the platform comprises two truck halves which have the same configuration, each truck half having a tab which is connected to the platform by passing through a helical slot formed in the tubular guide, one of said truck halves being connected to the means for producing translatory motion along the axis of the tubular guide.
An elevator according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the means for producing the translatory motion of the truck along the axis of the tubular guide comprise a fluid-actuated cylinder which has, at the end of its stem, a disk for the resting of the lower truck half.
An elevator according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized by the presence of an element which is made of antifriction material and is interposed between the disk arranged at the end of the stem of said fluid-actuated cylinder and an additional disk which is provided with means for resting the lower truck half.
An elevator according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that each truck half comprises four L-shaped elements which are uniformly distributed along the circumference and are adapted to support laterally adjacent plates for supporting the shafts of three pairs of barrel-shaped wheels which are accommodated in three interspaces between said L-shaped elements and are in contact with the inside wall of the tubular guide, and to also support, at the fourth interspace, said tab which connects to the platform.
A spiral staircase provided with an elevator according to one or more of the preceding claims, comprising at least one flight of stairs which has a landing at the top, characterized in that in each landing the front edge, in the region proximate to the central axis, has such a configuration as to give the walkable portion of said landing, in said region, substantially the shape of a circular sector, said configuration changing in the region proximate to the peripheral portion, so as to widen the walkable landing portion more than would occur if said circular sector-like shape were maintained, the configuration of the front edge of a plurality of steps which descend from said landing being such as to produce, in the region proximate to the central axis, a shape of the walkable portion thereof which is substantially circular sector-like and identical to the shape of said landing and varies with respect to said configuration in the region proximate to the peripheral portion by an extent which gradually decreases until it becomes nil for all the remaining steps of the flight of stairs, which therefore have said substantially circular sector-like shape along their entire extension.
A staircase according to claim 6, characterized in that the rear edge of the landing and of the steps has a configuration which corresponds to the configuration of the front edge of the respectively overlying steps.