JPH0585473B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a passenger conveyor such as an escalator or an electric road, and particularly relates to a handrail of a passenger conveyor using a glass panel.

[Background of the invention]

Escalators and other passenger conveyors have been used as ancillary equipment in various commercial buildings, but recently they have begun to be used in a variety of other fields such as office buildings, urban transportation, and pedestrian bridges. As a result, market needs are becoming more diverse, with emphasis placed on design depending on the application, and emphasis placed on lightness, economy, and even energy savings.

An example of a conventional passenger conveyor that has met the above needs is shown in Figure 2.
It consists of a movable part consisting of steps 1 and handrails 2 which are arranged in an endless manner and moves, and stationary bodies such as a parapet 3 and a main body frame part 4, all of which are supported by the building floor F.

The details of the balustrade 3 include the glass panel 5 supported by the main body frame 4, the inner deck 6, the outer deck 7, and the lower balustrade sap material such as the skirt guard 8, as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4. Further, on the upper side of the glass panel 5, a guide 9 for guiding the handrail, a handrail frame 10, a lighting fixture 11, and other parapet top sap members are arranged. On the lower inner side of the handrail frame (generally made of stainless steel) 10, there is a gasket 12 that protects the glass panel 5.
, grasp this glass panel, and light fixture 1.
A support 15 that supports the lamp 13 and the cover 14 that make up the lamp 1, and a bolt 16 attached to this support 15.
A push plate 17 is provided to which the glass panel 5 is finally fixed.

Here, the dimensional relationship of the sap material on the balustrade will be explained. The guide 9 on the upper side has a size to engage with the inner circumference of the handrail 2 made of the decorative rubber part 2a and the cotton canvas part 2b, and is fixed to the handrail frame 10 with bolts (not shown). Next, the handrail frame 10 has a height h that is 2 to 3 times the size ratio to the height ha of the handrail 2, and in the lateral direction extends outward from the side edge of the handrail 2. _a , l _b to the inside (generally both l _a and l _b are 10~
The l _a side is used for storing the lighting fixture 11, and the l _b side is used for holding the glass panel 5.

In such a conventional balustrade configuration, there has recently been an increasing need for a light design that excludes the lighting fixture 11 and that is energy-saving oriented.

Generally, when excluding the lighting fixture 11 shown in FIG. etc.) are usually not modified. In passenger conveyors that do not use such lighting equipment 11, the illuminance of the ceiling lights X and Y is increased to provide services to passengers (particularly to ensure that the footwells are sufficiently bright for safe use). rail frame 1
A size configuration of 0 is extremely inconvenient in terms of lighting.

That is, when the brightness of the ceiling light X is guided to the step 1 side through the glass panel 5 _as shown by the arrow M as shown in FIG _. will be regulated. This situation is particularly serious when the passenger conveyor is covered with a screen S or the like, and sometimes the illuminance essential for safe use by passengers cannot be ensured.

On the other hand, with conventional passenger conveyors, there are also issues that need to be resolved in terms of safety and design.

In terms of safety, it is conceivable that a young child may not be able to grasp the handrail 2 reliably. That is, as shown in Figure 4, the height H of the railing from step 1 is set to 650 to 750 mm from the perspective of preventing passengers from falling, and is a suitable height for passengers of school age and older. There is. However, in the case of young children, in addition to the height H problem, part of the hand Q comes into contact with the corner of the handrail frame 10 (point P) as shown in FIG.
This makes it difficult to grip the handrail 2.

If an attempt is made to grasp the handrail 2 in such an unreasonable condition, the feet will approach the skirt guard 8 and be pulled in around the step 1, which is extremely dangerous.

Furthermore, in terms of design, there is a problem in that wear powder R of the handrail 2 accumulates on the upper surface of the handrail frame 10. This abrasion powder R is a mixture of iron and rubber materials used in the drive system of the handrail 2, and the cotton canvas part 2b.As a public facility, this abrasion powder R causes a sense of uncleanness and stains passengers' clothes. Can't be ignored.

Here, a conventionally known example is the US patent
There is also No. 3989133, but it is largely the same as the conventional parapet configuration illustrated in the main text, and there is room for improvement.

As explained above, it can be seen that the conventional configuration of the balustrade 3 requires improvement in terms of energy saving, safety, and design.

For this reason, various types of balustrade configurations have been proposed in the past, which allow efficient daylighting into Step 1, while products with significant improvements in terms of safety and aesthetics have appeared on the market.

Hereinafter, the structure of a recent passenger conveyor in which the above-mentioned improvements have been made will be explained.

In FIGS. 5 and 6, the drive mechanism of the rotating step 1, the structure of the main body frame 4, the inner deck 6, the outer deck 7, the skirt guard 8, etc., and the lower parapet sap material are the same as before, but In this configuration, a guide frame 19 (generally made of extruded aluminum) that grips the upper end of the glass panel 18 (corresponding to the conventional glass panel 5) and guides the handrail 2, and The guide 20 provided constitutes the upper side of the parapet.

Here, the guide frame 9 on the upper side of the balustrade is provided continuously over the entire length of the balustrade,
The groove 19a is fitted into the upper end of the glass panel 18 via a gasket 21 provided to cover the upper end of the glass panel 18. Then, screws 22 set in advance on this guide frame 19
The nut 23 engages with a notch (width J ₁ , depth J ₂ ) 18a provided in the glass panel 18 and a notch 21a in the gasket 21, and the screw 22
It is a mechanism that is fixed by tightening. On the other hand, the guides 20 on both sides engage with the inner periphery of the handrail 2, and one end thereof is fitted into the groove 19b of the guide frame 19, and the other end is fitted into the glass panel 1.
It has a shape that covers the open end between the handrail 8 and the handrail 2, and is made of a plastic material such as nylon that has a low coefficient of friction.

Furthermore, the upper side members of the guide frame 19 and the guide 20 are efficiently stored in the inner peripheral space of the handrail 2 in both horizontal and vertical dimensions, and are fixed to the most important glass panel 18 through the groove 19a and the notch. This can be done reliably by the fastening force of the screw 22 using the screw 18a. Note that the guide 20 is screw 2.
After the handrail 2 is fastened, it is fixed without falling off by fitting into the groove 19b and contacting the lower end of the guide frame 19, and this configuration is continuously arranged in the section where the handrail 2 runs.

The recent balustrade configurations described above have been well received in terms of lighting (energy saving), safety, and aesthetics, as described above.

However, in the recent railing configurations of passenger conveyors shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, an unexpected external force acts as a force M _a to separate the glass panel 18 and the guide frame 19 at the upper side of the railing. , It has become necessary to use the screws 22 frequently for the purpose of resisting this external force. This force M _a
Although this is caused by mischief by passengers, increasing the number of screws 22 increases assembly costs and increases the amount of maintenance and inspection work.

2 Furthermore, an external force similar to this acts on the screw 22 portion as force M _b when the handrail 2 is reversed, as shown in FIG. This force M _b is greatest when the rotation direction of the handrail 2 is in the direction of arrow M (downward operation), and it is necessary to increase the amount of screws 22 as described above.

3. Furthermore, in the configuration as shown in FIG. 6, there is a concern that the notch 18a of the glass panel 18 and the metal screw 22 are likely to come into contact with each other, leading to damage to the glass panel 18.

There were drawbacks such as:

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a handrail for a passenger conveyor that eliminates the drawbacks of the prior art described above, has excellent design and lighting, has no safety problems, and is low-cost.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve this object, the present invention is characterized in that the guide frame is attached to the upper edge of the glass panel using a silicon adhesive.

[Embodiments of the invention]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The handrail for a passenger conveyor according to the present invention will be explained in detail below using illustrated embodiments.

1 and 8 to 11 show one embodiment of the present invention, and the configurations of the handrail 2 and the guide 20 are exactly the same as those of the conventional one, so they are given the same reference numerals, but in this embodiment, the glass panel 24 and the guide frame 25 are fixed with a bonding agent 26.

Here, the guide frame 25 is provided with a groove 25a and a groove 25b for mounting the guide 20 in substantially the same way as the conventional guide frame 19; I will not set any. Then, as the bonding agent 26,
Another major feature is the use of a silicone sealant as described below.

Here, the properties required of the bonding agent 26 include approximately the following items.

(1) Bonding strength In order to support the running of the handrail 2, the glass panel 2 provided by the handrail 2 itself
4 and the guide 25 (force shown in Figure 2)
_Mb , etc.), the joint strength is required to withstand mainly upward tensile forces such as the force of passengers lifting the handrail 2, which acts in a similar manner.

(2) Aging characteristics A passenger conveyor usually operates for more than 20 years, and it is necessary to have stable joint strength during this period and characteristics that do not deteriorate over time.

(3) Flexibility and cushioning properties: Since it is bonded to glass, it must be flexible and also have a cushioning effect against the impact force caused by passengers.

Furthermore, since it is a mechanical part and is used to join dissimilar materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion, it is also necessary to have the ability to follow vibrations and expansion/contraction.

(4) Weather resistance and durability Because passenger conveyors can be installed not only indoors but also outdoors, they need to be durable against sunlight, wind, rain, and temperature.

Among the above-mentioned required characteristics, the most important items are considered to be joint strength and aging deterioration from the perspective of maintaining safety as a personnel transportation facility.

In general, silicone-based and urethane-based bonding agents are known as glass bonding agents.For example, in architectural equipment that uses a lot of glass, these two cylinder agents are often used, and in rare cases, polysulfide-based ones are used. It is.

The necessary characteristics of the bonding agent 26 and the types of general sealing agents have been described above, but the bonding agent 26 in the present invention is based on silicone based on various commonly known data and the results of actual measurements of bonding strength by the inventor. The following sealants were selected.

First, we will discuss the actual measurement results of joint strength. This joint strength experiment was conducted using a cross-sectional shape as shown in Figure 1.
In other words, the guide frame 25 is located within 12 mm of the upper end of the glass panel 24 (12 mm downward from the upper end surface).
The guide frame 25 is fitted into the groove 25a of the glass panel 24 and is filled with a bonding agent 26, and is peeled off by pulling the guide frame 25 from the glass panel 24 in the direction of the arrow M for an actual model with a longitudinal dimension of 30 mm. This is a measurement of the destructive force when

The tensile speed in the direction of arrow M was set to a low speed of 50 mm/min or less, and the following two types of bonding agents were used under the same conditions. Furthermore, the following temperature conditions and their temperatures were used as a method of accelerating aging of the bonding agents. This is an actual measurement of the change in the time of exposure and the destructive force under the following conditions.

As a result, measurement results as shown in FIG. 10a were obtained.

In this way, on the railing of the passenger conveyor with the structure shown in Figure 1, silicone-based material (the sample was Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.'s product name Sealant 70)
It can be seen that the bonding force is about 10 times stronger and there is less deterioration. In addition, the temperature change resistance and tensile strength are also 10th.
As shown in Figure b, it is stable (literature values) and can be welcomed as a constituent material for passenger conveyors installed both indoors and outdoors.

Furthermore, silicone-based bonding agents have approximately the same bonding strength for glass and aluminum materials as adhesives, making them suitable for the bonding structure shown in Figure 1, and also have merits such as water resistance and ultraviolet resistance. can.

Next, the longitudinal direction, joint portion, and internal structure of the glass panel 24 and the guide frame 25 will be explained. For the relationship in the longitudinal direction, a typical example is shown in Section 8.
As shown in the figure for the middle part of the passenger conveyor, the guide frame 25 has a dimension of about 3 to 10 mm at both ends relative to the length L of the glass panel 24.
The bonding agent 26 is filled at different levels of L _a .

On the other hand, the glass panel 24 and the guide frame 25
As shown in FIG. 9, the internal structure between the glass panel 24 is to cover the thickness t _a of the glass panel 24 with a substantially U-shaped spacer 26 a having a thickness t _b , and to space the spacers 26 a at intervals of approximately 1 m. A guide frame 25 having a groove width T approximately equal to the total thickness t _a + 2t _b is placed on the guide frame 25 (push it in as shown by the arrow MM), and the final result is as shown in Fig. 7. The glass panel 24 is fitted into the groove 25a to a depth of about 12 mm, and the bonding agent 26 is inserted into the gap ll where there is no spacer 26a (the part hatched with two-dot chain lines in FIG. 9). As a result, the glass panel 24 and the guide frame 25 are joined at a precise interval equal to the thickness _tb of the spacer 26a. Therefore, the two members to be joined can be positioned naturally without the need for special positioning work, resulting in labor-saving and quality control effects.

By the way, the glass panels 24 and guide frames 25 that are joined together as shown in FIG. 9 are arranged in large numbers in the longitudinal direction of the passenger conveyor, but the joints are joined as shown in FIG. 11. There is a system in place to ensure that As shown in the figure, the glass panels 24 have a gap of δ (2 to 3 mm).
At this time, the guide frame 2
The joint configuration is such that a gap L (twice as large as L _a in Fig. 8) exists between the 5 pieces. In this part,
In the embodiment of the present invention, a joint plate 27 is applied from the side to connect the guide frames 25 to each other, and the joint plate 27 and the guide frame 25 are connected with screws 28. This screw 28 is screwed in from the side of the guide frame 25 to integrally connect the plurality of guide frames 25. Also, this gap
Since L _b has the risk of causing a sense of discontinuity in the running of the handrail 2, the joint of the guide 20 is set at this gap L _b
It has been moved to the seam L _c to avoid this.

The reason why the level difference L _a is provided in FIG. 8 is to assemble and adjust the gap δ in the state shown in FIG. This is to prevent interference between the two.

On the other hand, in the embodiment of the present invention, special measures have been taken for the lower side of the parapet.

As shown in FIG. 12, at the end of the balustrade where the greatest detachment force acts on the glass panel 24 and the guide frame 25, which are fixed by the bonding agent 26, the guide frame 2
Fix the end of 5 to a part of the main body frame 4 with screw 29,
It has a structure that can sufficiently withstand the force shown by arrow M _b .

With the above configuration, the concerns about the recent parapet configurations mentioned above are as follows: 1. Assembly work and maintenance and inspection work are extremely simple due to the complete elimination of the conventional notches 18a and screws 22, and silicon Since they are firmly joined by the adhesive 26, there is no problem in terms of strength.

2 The glass panel 24 considered to be a damaged item is bonded with bonding agent 2.
There is an advantage that the bonding agent 26 is protected by the bonding agent 26, and vibrations caused by the running of the handrail 2 are also damped by the bonding agent 26. This also has the effect of buffering the impact force from passengers.

3. The characteristics of the silicone bonding agent 26 and the screws 29 can sufficiently withstand external forces caused by the reversal of the handrail 2.

All of these problems can be solved by the above embodiments.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this.
A configuration as shown in FIG. 3 may also be used. That is, a single guide frame 101 (conventionally, a guide 20 is used in combination) is attached to the upper end of a glass panel 100 using a bonding agent 10.
2 may be fixed, or this guide frame 10
1 itself may also be shaped to protrude below the handrail 2 (Y portion). In addition, although one guide frame 25 is bonded to the glass panel 24 in FIG. 8, if it is possible to handle and transport this part, one guide frame 25 may be attached to two glass panels 24.
There is no problem even if 5 is joined.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, when fixing the guide frame and the glass panel, there is no need for any work or screws on the upper edge of the glass panel, which eliminates the drawbacks of the prior art and provides a bright, light and stylish design. It is possible to easily provide a railing structure for a passenger conveyor that has high safety and can securely fix the guide frame and the glass panel.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the railing of a passenger conveyor according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of the upper part of a conventional passenger conveyor, and FIG.
4 is a sectional view taken along the - line in FIG. 2, FIG. The figure is a perspective view showing the internal structure of Figure 5.
FIG. 7 is a side view of the upper part of a passenger conveyor having the railing configuration shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and FIG. FIG. 9 is an exploded view of FIG. 8; FIGS. 10 a and b are characteristic diagrams of the bonding agent; FIG. The figure is a side view of the upper portion showing the parapet structure of the present invention, and FIG. 13 is a sectional view corresponding to FIG. 1 showing another embodiment of the present invention. 1...Step, 2...Handrail, 3...
Balustrade, 4...Body frame, 5, 18, 24, 100...
...Glass panel, 19, 25, 101... Guide frame, 19a, 25a... Groove, 20... Guide, 26, 102... Bonding agent, 29... Screw.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a railing of a passenger conveyor in which a guide frame for guiding a handrail is attached to the upper edge of a vertical glass panel held parallel to the moving direction of the steps, the mounting portion of the glass panel and the guide frame is provided. , an inverted U-shaped groove formed on the lower surface of the guide frame, and a silicon-based bonding agent filled in the gap with a predetermined thickness after inserting this groove into the upper edge of the glass panel. A passenger conveyor railing characterized by being composed of layers. 2. In claim 1, in the gap between the inverted U-shaped groove and the upper edge of the glass panel,
A railing for a passenger conveyor, characterized in that a space is provided to define the thickness of the bonding agent layer. 3 In claim 1 or 2,
A railing for a passenger conveyor, characterized in that the guide frame is fixed to the main body frame of the passenger conveyor at its terminal end. 4. In any one of claims 1 to 3, the guide frame includes a guide member on its surface, and the joint of the guide member is located at a different position from the joint of the guide frame. A passenger conveyor railing characterized by being configured as follows.