Field of the invention
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The present disclosure generally relates to elevator systems with a shaft, at least one car being moveable in the shaft by means of a drive and at least one landing stop for the car. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a landing door of such an elevator system having a side jamb, which forms a housing for a control unit.
Background of the invention
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Elevators for vertically and/or horizontally transporting people and goods are an integral part of modern residential and commercial buildings. A typical elevator system includes one or more elevator cars moved by a hoist system such as an elevator drive, e.g. including a driven sheave assemblies over which one or more tension members are driven or a linear drive system.
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Elevators usually require a lot of space in a building for the elevator shaft but also for machinery and electronics such as a control unit cabinet. These elements need to be placed in the building in a manner, that they are not consuming too much space, that they are not disturbing, e.g. in regards of interior design, and that they are accessible, e.g. for maintenance. Such placement further requires extensive planning effort. It is therefore known from the state of the art, to integrate the control unit into a side jamb of a landing door of the elevator system, so that no further cabinet needs to be placed in the building. This however requires the control unit to be very small and/or the side jamb to be rather heavy to accommodate the control unit, so that the side jamb is of bulky appearance and requires a large wall break.
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A landing door with a side jamb accommodating a control unit is for example disclosed in
CN 201793289 U . This control unit has a cabinet, which can be slide in and out of the side jamb. Disadvantageously, the side jamb accommodating the control unit cabinet is rather heavy, in particular as the side jamb accommodates the components of the control unit and the components of the slide mechanism.
Description of the invention
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Thus, a need exists for an elevator system with a side jamb accommodating a control unit, wherein the side jamb is of a small or at least less heavy design.
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It is therefore an object of the invention to suggest such an elevator system, wherein the side jamb is of a small or at least less heavy design over the state of the art.
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This object is solved by the features of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments are indicated in the dependent claims. Where technically possible, the features of the dependent claims may be combined as desired with the features of the independent claims and/or other dependent claims.
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In particular, the object is solved by an elevator system with a shaft, at least one car being moveable in the shaft by means of a drive and at least one landing stop for the car, wherein a landing door is located at the at least one landing stop in a wall of the shaft, wherein the landing door separates the shaft from a landing area, wherein the landing door has at least one door leaf and at least one side jamb, wherein the side jamb forms a housing for stationary installation of a control unit for controlling operation of the elevator system, wherein the housing has at least one pivotable hatch for accessing the control unit, wherein the hatch is accessible from the landing area and wherein the hatch is detachable from the housing.
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A shaft of the elevator system may extend in vertical and/or in horizontal direction. In one embodiment the shaft extends only vertical or only horizontal. In another embodiment, the elevator system has at least one section of the shaft in which the shaft extends vertical and at least one section in which the shaft extends horizontal, wherein the car can pass from the vertically extending section into the horizontally extending section.
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A drive is, in particular, formed by a sheave assembly driven by a drive device, wherein tension members bear against the sheave with sufficient static friction to apply a drive torque to the tension members. The tension member is connected to the car and preferably to a counterweight, which is raised, when the car is lowered and vice versa or the tension member is connected to at least one fix point in the shaft and passed through the car via underslung or overslung and the counterweight. The drive device is, for example, an electric machine, a pneumatic motor or a hydraulic motor and acts directly or via a gearbox on the sheave.
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A landing stop is defined by an opening in the drive shaft, e.g. at a certain floor of a building, wherein the opening is formed by a landing door, respectively wherein the door convers the opening. The car preferably has a car door, which aligns with the landing door at the landing stop and is opened in a synchronized manner with the landing door. Preferred, the car door has a drive mechanism for the opening of the door and has a mechanical or optical coupling mechanism, that couples the car door with the landing door at the landing stop and opens/closes both, the car door and the landing door, synchronously.
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The landing door may be a sliding door, a pivotable door or a foldable door, wherein it may have one or more door leaves. Preferred, the door leaf or door leaves open to one side of the landing door. It is also possible that the landing door has more two or more door leaves, which open to the same side, e.g. in a telescopic manner, or to different sides of the landing door.
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The landing door is located next to at least one side jamb, preferably two side jambs, and preferably a header, wherein the jambs are designed to form a connection between the landing door and a surrounding wall, and cover mechanic parts of the landing door, e.g. the drive mechanisms or guide rails. The jambs further accommodate control elements, e.g. for calling a car and/or identifying a user, and/or information elements like a display or a light element. Neither said control elements nor said display elements are considered to be part of a control unit, although they may interact with the control unit, in particular receive commands from the control unit or sent commands to the control unit.
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The control unit for controlling operation of the elevator system comprises at least one processor for processing commands from users and/or a state of the elevator system and for controlling the drive and, if feasible, a break device of the elevator system according to the processed commands and/or the state of the elevator system. Therefore the controlling device has a number of electronic components such as circuit boards, processors, microcontrollers, switches and the same. It is a basic design requirement, that these components are accessible for maintenance and in particular for replacement. The side jamb is therefore required to allow enough room for these operations. Maintenance in particular includes visual checking of the components, connecting of cables or application of measuring tools to the components, and/or replacement of components. As the control unit is installed stationary, the components are in a fixed position inside the side jamb and cannot be moved from this position, in particular not be slide out of the housing.
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The elevator system includes the teaching, that the hatch is detachable from the housing. It is to be understood, that the hatch can be detached with ease, e.g. by a hook mechanism, a hinge mechanism or a clamp mechanism and most preferred without any need for using a tool, that is the hinge is detachable in a tool-free manner. Moreover, the hatch is preferably detachable from the landing area, e.g. from the same position as the hatch can be accessed. It is thereby made possible, that the pivot mechanism of the hatch allows for an opening sufficient for access to the control unit but not for (re)placement of the components of the control unit, respectively the hatch is of a design, which extends into the opening of the housing in the opened state. Thus, in the opened state, most standard maintenance operations can be sufficiently executed, e.g. visual checking of the components, connecting of cables or application of measuring tools to the components. Without any determined damage to the components, the opening by pivoting the hatch is therefore sufficient for maintenance. As components need to be replaced, additional space can be made available by detaching the hatch. Advantageously, by the features of the invention the housing can be designed smaller/less heavy than known housings. Such a housing requires less space for hatch mounts and/or for pivoting the hatch(es), Thus, the side jamb can be designed smaller, respectively provides more room for the control unit, respectively components of the control unit, at the same size.
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In a preferred embodiment, the housing has exactly one pivotable hatch. By providing only/exactly one hatch for accessing the control unit at the housing, the side jamb must provide the space accompanying a hatch, e.g. space for mounts and space for pivoting the hatch, only once and is therefore smaller over a side jamb which provides two hatches, e.g. one hatch accessible from the landing area and one hatch accessible from the shaft. Further, with only one hatch, more interior wall space is available for the mounting of components of the control unit. Advantageously with only one hatch, all components of the control unit are accessible from the one hatch, so that the entire control unit is accessible from one single position. It is therefore of favor to extend the hatch over a substantial part of the height of the side jamb, preferably over the entire height of the side jamb to allow the housing to accommodate components over this part of the height while being accessible through the hatch. The housing may also accommodate components of the control unit in a part of the housing, where the hatch does not extend to, wherein these components do not require maintenance.
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In one embodiment, the hatch is pivotable by 85° or less, 80° or less, 75° or less, 70° or less, 65° or less, 60° or less, 55° or less, 50° or less, 45° or less, 40° or less, 35° or less, or even 30° or less. Thus, it is pivotable sufficiently for certain maintenance operations but not for replacement of components of the control unit. The pivoting mechanism may therefore be of a smaller/less heavy design.
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In one embodiment of the invention, the control unit is installed stationary in the housing. Thus, the elevator system also comprises the control unit being installed in the housing. By the stationary installation, the components cannot be moved in/from the housing, the side jamb /the housing can be of a particularly small design, as no further components for providing moveability of the components must be provided.
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Preferably, at least one component of the control unit is fastened to a back side of the housing vis-á-vis the hatch, whereby an overall comfortable access to the component is provided. As the housing has only one hatch, all other sides, in particular a back side, a left side and a right side, viewed from the hatch, are available for fastening of components of the control unit.
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In another embodiment, alignment of the hatch against the housing is maintained during detachment. This means, that when the hatch is reattached to the housing, the alignment is restored without further measures. In particular the hatch comprises means for aligning the hatch with the housing, e.g. an adjustable hook mechanism, hinge mechanism or clamp mechanism, wherein adjustment means and the means for detaching the hatch are independent of each other in their function.
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In yet another embodiment, the hatch has two locks each locking the hatch against an element of the housing, wherein the locks are distributed over the height of the hatch. In this manner, the hatch can extend along a substantial part of the height of the side jamb and it is still enabled, to securely lock the hatch. With only one lock, at a certain height extension of the hatch, the hatch could be bend open in an act of vandalism or sabotage and the control unit could be accessed by unauthorized persons and would possibly be damaged. Therefore, two locks enable a better extension of the hatch, so that the hatch allows for comfortable access to all components of the control unit, respectively allow the space in the housing along the entire height of the hatch to be utilized by the control unit or parts of the control unit. Preferably, the two locks are nonvariable parts and can be operated by the same key.
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In another embodiment, the side jamb forming the housing has an emergency release for the at least one door leaf, wherein the emergency release is accessible from the landing area. The emergency release can thereby interact with the control unit, so that beside a mechanical release of the landing door, the emergency release can influence the /interact with control unit, e.g. an actuation of the emergency release is registered by the control unit without extensive hardware requirements like lines and the same.
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In one embodiment, the at least one door leaf is slidable to a side of the landing door opposite the side jamb forming the housing. On the side of the side jamb forming the housing, there is then no need to provide space for the door leaves to pull in and the entire space of the side jamb can be utilized for the control unit, so that a comfortable accessible arrangement of the control unit components is favored. In an embodiment with more than one slidable door leaf, preferably all door leaves are slidable to the side of the landing door opposite the side jamb forming the housing.
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In another embodiment, the landing door has two side jambs on both sides of the at least one door leaf, wherein each side jamb forms a housing for a part of the control unit. It is therefore provided more space for accommodation of components of the control unit. This embodiment might go along with a landing door having two door leaves, which each slide to one side of the landing door. Each side jamb then provides space for the respective door leave to be pulled in and reduced space for accommodating components of the control unit, but still enough space to accommodate the entire control unit in one landing door. Preferably, both housings each have exactly one pivotable hatch for accessing the part of the control unit, wherein the hatch is accessible from the landing area and wherein the hatch is detachable from the housing. The predescribed advantages of these features are effected accordingly for both side jambs.
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In yet another embodiment, a stationary element of the housing or of each housing is connected to an earthing. In particular, the stationary element is not the hatch or a part of the hatch, which is detachable, so that during detachment of the hatch, the housing is still in connection with the earthing.
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In one embodiment, the shaft is vertical and the elevator system has at least two landing stops, wherein the side jamb/s forming the housing/s is/are located at a top landing stop. This is, the top landing stop is the landing area, where most maintenance work for the elevator system is executed. By locating the control unit in this area, the need for change of location during maintenance work is reduced. Further, as machinery of the elevator system, in particular a drive of the elevator system, is usually located at the top of the vertical shaft, the control unit and the drive are located close to each other in favor of reduced need for wiring and other connection means, e.g. wireless connection means. In particular, wireless connection means may be enabled for use due to a short distance between the control unit and the drive.
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In yet another embodiment, the drive is located in a head space of the shaft. Thus, there is no separate room for machinery and an overall small/less space consuming elevator system is provided. In particular, with a drive in the head space of the shaft, the drive is accessed from the top landing stop for maintenance. Thus, if the control unit is also located at the top landing stop, most components that require maintenance are located close to each other and maintenance effort is reduced accordingly.
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The object is further solved by a side jamb for a landing door of a predescribed elevator system, wherein the side jamb forms a housing for at least a part of a control unit for controlling operation of the elevator system, wherein the housing has exactly one pivotable hatch for accessing the control unit, wherein the hatch is accessible from the landing area and wherein the hatch is detachable from the housing. The predescribed advantages of the elevator system are effected accordingly for the side jamb.
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The object is even further solved by a landing door for a predescribed elevator system having at least one predescribed side jamb. The predescribed advantages of the elevator system and/or the side jamb are effected accordingly for the landing door.
Brief description of the figures
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In the following, the invention is explained in more detail with reference to the accompanying figures using preferred examples of embodiments. The formulation figure is abbreviated in the drawings as Fig.
- Fig. 1a
- is a schematic side view of a detail of an elevator system according to the invention at a landing stop;
- Fig. 1b
- is a schematic front view of a landing door at the landing stop according to fig. 1, viewed from the landing area;
- Fig. 2a
- is a perspective view of a side jamb of an elevator system according to the invention, wherein a hatch of the side jamb is closed;
- Fig. 2b
- is a perspective view of the side jamb according to fig. 2a, wherein the hatch of the side jamb is opened;
- Fig. 2c
- is a perspective view of the side jamb according to figs. 2a and 2b, wherein the hatch of the side jamb is detached;
- Fig. 2d
- is a perspective transparent view of the side jamb according to figs. 2a, 2b and 2c;
- Fig. 3
- a front view of a side jamb of an elevator system according to the invention, wherein the hatch detached and a control unit is provided in the hatch;
- Fig. 4a
- is a perspective view of an upper hinge of the hatch according to figs. 2a to 2d; and
- Fig. 4b
- is a perspective view of an lower hinge of the hatch according to figs. 2a to 2d.
Detailed description of the embodiments
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The described embodiments are merely examples that can be modified and/or supplemented in a variety of ways within the scope of the claims. Any feature described for a particular embodiment example may be used independently or in combination with other features in any other embodiment example. Any feature described for an embodiment example of a particular claim category may also be used in a corresponding manner in an embodiment example of another claim category.
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Taking reference to figure 1a and 1b, an elevator system 1 has a vertical shaft 2 defined by shaft walls 2.1, 2.2 and a car 3 being moveable in the shaft 2 by a tension member 4, which is driven by a drive not pictured in the figures. The car 3 is at a landing stop 5 of the elevator system 1, which is e.g. a floor level of a building. At the landing stop 5, the shaft wall 2.2 has a wall break, in which a landing door 6 is located. The landing door 6, of which figure 1b shows a front view, has a first side jamb 7.1, a second side jamb 7.2, a header 7.3 and a door sill 7.4. The landing door 6 further has two door leaves 8.1, 8.2 which are slidable, e.g. by a drive mechanism in the header 7.3 and/or guide rails in the header 7.3 and the door sill 7.4 not pictured. At the second side jamb 7.2, a control element 9 is located, e.g. for calling a car 3 from the landing area 5. The control element 9 can e.g. be formed by a button, a card reader or a touch sensitive display and may further include an information element like a light element.
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When the car 3 is at the landing stop 5, a car door not pictured aligns with the landing door 6 and a drive mechanism of the car door synchronously opens/closes the car door and the landing door 6, wherein the door leaves 8.1, 8.2 slide to the side of the second side jamb 7.2.
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The first side jamb 7.1 forms a housing 10 for a control unit 15 as will be described with reference to the figures 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d. The first side jamb 7.1 is formed hollow to provide space for components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 of a control unit 15, e.g. circuit boards, processors, microcontrollers, switches and the same. Thus, the first side jamb 7.1 itself forms the housing 10 integrally and directly within the hollow space for stationary placement of the components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 of the control unit 15. No further plates, sheets or separate housing elements are provided above mounting means for the components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 of the control unit 15 inside the hollow space. For accessing the housing 10, respectively the control unit 15 in the housing 10, a hatch 11 is provided at a front side of the first side jamb 7.1 accessible from the landing area 5. The first side jamb 7.1 does not provide further openings for access to the control unit 15 above the single hatch 11, in particular no further hatches. The hatch 11 extents over a substantial part of the height H, namely the entire height H, of the first side jamb 7.1 and therefore allows access to the entire housing 10, respectively enables the housing 10 to be formed over the entire height H of the fist side jamb 7.1 while being completely accessible.
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The hatch 11 is pivotably mounted on a first side 11.1, so that it can swing open for maintenance access to the control unit 15 as shown in fig. 2b, where the hatch 11 is opened to the maximum allowed opening angle. This opening is sufficient for visual checking of the components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, connecting of cables or application of measuring tools to the components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, thus standard maintenance work and is therefore sufficient for most usual maintenance operations. Meanwhile the opening angle might not be sufficient for replacement of components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, in particular as the hatch still extends into the opening and would therefore hinder components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 to pass through the opening. Therefore, the hatch 11 is designed detachable; a side jamb 7.1 with a detached hatch 11 is shown in figure 2c. Thus, with a detached hatch 11 the housing 10 is accessible in a manner sufficient for the replacement of components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 of the control unit 15.
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The first side jamb 7.1, respectively the hatch 11, is further provided with two locks 12.1, 12.2, which lock the hatch 11 against structural elements 13.1, 13.2 of the side jamb 7.1. The two locks 12.1, 12.2 are distributed over the height of the hatch 11 to provide sufficient stiffness, respectively prevent bending of the hatch 11 and thereby unauthorized access to the housing 10 / the control unit 15. At a further structural element 13.3, an emergency release 14, respectively an access for an emergency release 14, is provided. By exerting the emergency release 14 the door leaves 8.1, 8.2 are unlocked for manual operation.
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Now taking reference to figure 3, a control unit 15 is provided in the housing 10, wherein a hatch 11 is detached for full access to the control unit 15, e.g. for replacement of a components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3. The control unit 15 is provided with a number of components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, e.g. circuit boards, processors, microcontrollers, switches and the same, utilizing the housing 10. Due to the extent of the hatch 11 over the entire height H of the first side jamb 7.1, the components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 can be distributed over this entire height H in favor of sufficient access to all components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3. In particular, the components 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 are provided at a back side of the housing vis-á-vis the hatch 11. The control unit 15 is also pictured in figure 2b.
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Taking reference to figures 4a and 4b, the hatch 11 is pivotably connected to the housing 10 by a upper hinge 16.1 and a lower hinge 16.2. The lower hinge 16.2 has a stationary pin 17.1 for engaging a lower hinge hole at the housing 10. The upper hinge 16.1 has a retractable pin 17.2 for engaging a upper hinge hole at the housing 10. The retractable pin 17.2 is supported by a spring 18. By retracting the retractable pin 17.2 against the spring 18, the hatch 11 can be easily detached from the housing 10 without the use of a tool.
Reference list
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- 1
- elevator system
- 2
- shaft of the elevator system
- 2.1
- shaft wall
- 2.2
- shaft wall
- 3
- car of the elevator system
- 4
- tension member
- 5
- landing stop of the elevator system
- 6
- landing door
- 7.1
- first side jamb
- 7.2
- second side jamb
- 7.3
- header
- 7.4
- door sill
- 8.1
- first door leaf
- 8.2
- second door leaf
- 9
- control element
- 10
- housing
- 11
- hatch
- 11.1
- first side of the hatch
- 12.1
- first lock
- 12.2
- second lock
- 13.1
- structural element
- 13.2
- structural element
- 13.3
- structural element
- 14
- emergency release
- 15
- control unit
- 15.1
- component of the control unit
- 15.2
- component of the control unit
- 15.3
- component of the control unit
- 16.1
- upper hinge
- 16.2
- lower hinge
- 17.1
- stationary pin
- 17.2
- retractable pin 17.2
- 18
- spring
- H
- height of the first side j amb
