JPS6240277B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a handrail for a passenger conveyor such as an escalator or an electric road, and more particularly to a handrail for a passenger conveyor made of a stainless steel plate.

Passenger conveyors have been established as important transportation service equipment in buildings, but recently they have been widely used in urban transportation facilities such as subways, and expectations are mainly due to their durability and their importance in high-end department stores etc. There is now a need to meet the expectations of people in terms of design. Therefore, passenger conveyors require high consideration in terms of both durability and design.

Here, the railing of the passenger conveyor is composed of almost all stationary bodies except rotating bodies such as the step 1 and the handrail 2, which are arranged in an endless manner and rotate to carry passengers. It is already well known that the handrail 2 is constructed by a combination of design members such as the main deck 3, guide deck 4, lower deck 5, and handrail panel 6 that support the handrail 2, and auxiliary materials such as the fastening bolts 7 and guide rollers 8. That's right.

Among the design members, the main deck 3, guide deck 4, and lower deck 5 have long been made of extruded aluminum alloy material subjected to chemical treatment. As is generally known, this aluminum alloy material has been widely adopted due to its extremely excellent formability in cross-sectional forming and bending, but recently, aluminum raw materials have become depleted. Disadvantages have begun to be pointed out, such as high cost and the fact that the aluminum alloy itself is soft (compared to general steel), making it more susceptible to scratches.

The above-mentioned disadvantage of being easily scratched is serious on the step 1 side where passengers are crowded, that is, on the inside surface of the handrail member, and on the passenger conveyor that has been in operation for several years, many passengers come into contact with it, causing scratches and dents. In addition, the surface corrosion of passenger conveyors installed in subway stations and the like has become quite serious.

In this way, it can be said that conventional aluminum alloys not only have high costs, but also have flaws such as scratches and corrosion that are fatal to the lifespan of passenger conveyors.

For this reason, research has recently continued into replacing aluminum alloy materials with stainless steel sheets, which are stable in price and have excellent hardness and corrosion resistance, and some have even been commercialized.

However, the reality is that mass production of parapet design members made of stainless steel plates has not yet become widespread due to the following technical problems. In other words, as shown in Fig. 1, the passenger conveyor has a streamlined structure with a concave curved part (not shown), a convex curved part U, and a terminal curved part T from the lower hanging opening (not shown) to the upper hanging opening. Because it draws a unique arc, the first requirement for a balustrade member is good bending workability.

Here, among the parapet members made of stainless steel plate,
Using the main deck 3 of the terminal semicircular portion as a representative example, problems during bending will be explained.

In Figures 3 and 6, generally the main deck 3
has an abbreviated cross-sectional shape that opens inward,
Further, it is molded into a substantially U-shaped external shape having a curved portion C and straight portions A and _B , which are a perfect semicircle with R ₁ on the outer circumferential surface g ₁ and R ₂ on the inner circumferential surface g 2 . During molding, a general method is to continuously apply a force Z to the inner peripheral portion and to pull both ends a and b in the directions of arrows X and Y, as shown in FIG. In this case, in response to the tensile forces of arrows X and Y, the outer circumferential surface _g1 stretches as shown by arrow G, and on the contrary, the inner circumferential surface
At g ₂ , it begins to contract as shown by arrow E. This elongation and contraction phenomenon can be analyzed with common sense, from the relationship between the cross-sectional shape of the main deck 3 and the bending shape as shown in Figure 4, that it will elongate on the outside of the neutral axis L and contract on the inside. As a result, the aforementioned shrinkage appears as wrinkles S as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. Therefore, it is obvious that the width W of the main deck 3 is deformed to the inside _S1 or the outside _S2 , which causes problems both in terms of installation and design of the balustrade panel 6 and the lower deck 5.

As mentioned above, it can be said that the generation of wrinkles S due to shrinkage of a member is a very common idea of the engineer concerned, but the phenomenon of bending deformation described below is based on theoretical analysis and several practical test runs. This was elucidated by

That is, as mentioned above, the main deck 3 of the terminal section is formed by the semicircular part C and the straight parts A and B. Although many wrinkles S occur at the boundary, they have been found.

Here, the outer peripheral surface of the main deck 3 (terminal part)
The drawbacks of the conventional method will be explained with reference to FIG. 7, which shows the elongation rate of each point after expanding g ₁ and dividing it into arbitrary equally divided points.

In Figure 7, the main deck 3 is made of SUS304, has a plate thickness of 1.5 mm, has the shape shown in Figure 4, and has R ₁ =
Assuming a length of 300 mm, it can be seen that the maximum elongation is about 10% in the curved section C, while the elongation is around 2% in the straight sections A and B. In other words, the main deck 3 is forced to undergo a rapid change of approximately five times from the straight section to the curved section. As a result, it is easy to understand that bending deformations such as wrinkles S occur frequently at the boundaries between the straight portions A and B and the curved portion C. It should be noted that this unbalanced elongation phenomenon is the same even when R ₁ = 300 mm or more, and has been the biggest reason why stainless steel balustrades have not been widely adopted until now. Of course, it is also true that the occurrence of wrinkles S is largely related to the position of the neutral axis L from the viewpoint of material mechanics, and as shown in FIG.
is located at a position n close to the outer circumferential surface g ₁ and has a neutral radius of curvature R ₁ close to the outer radius of curvature R ₁ , so the amount of shrinkage increases on the inner circumferential surface g ₂ side, which inevitably causes wrinkles. It becomes S and deforms.

Here, in the case of an aluminum balustrade, it is possible to thicken the parts where wrinkles S tend to appear and absorb wrinkles within that board thickness, but in the case of a stainless steel balustrade that uses thin plates, this is difficult. It's becoming difficult.

The only way to remove such harmful wrinkles S is inefficient methods such as heating the component to a high temperature and hammering it with a hand hammer, and the disadvantages of this rework work, such as a decrease in design quality and high costs, are truly serious. It is considered a problem.

As mentioned above, stainless steel balustrades suffer from: 1. Rapid changes in elongation, especially near the boundary between straight and curved sections.

2. The neutral axis of the bending member is located far from the inner peripheral surface where wrinkles tend to appear.

There is a direct cause for this.

In view of the above points, the present invention has been made in order to provide a balustrade structure that eliminates harmful deformation during bending and can dramatically increase productivity even when stainless steel plates are used for the balustrade. be.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, taking a main deck as a representative example.

8 to 10, the configuration of the handrail 2, balustrade panel 6, etc. is completely the same as the conventional one, but in the present invention, the curved part of the main arc of the balustrade member is placed near the curved part of the main arc of the balustrade member. Another plurality of circular arc parts formed with a radius of curvature different from the radius of curvature is arranged, and the circumferential part g ₃ (same as the conventional g ₂ ) side of the main deck 9 (corresponding to the conventional main deck 3) is arranged. A feature is that the main deck is made of stainless steel and has a deformation preventing piece 9a that projects inward by a length M1.

Here, the main deck 9 has the same radius of curvature as before.
A curved section with R ₁ (outer periphery) and R ₂ (inner periphery) as base arcs, and a curved line with radii of curvature R ₄ and R ₅ with R ₁ < R _{4 and R 4 <} R ₅ near this curved section. Parts D and E
are arranged. Note that the appropriate size of the radii of curvature R ₄ and R ₅ is approximately R ₁ ×2 to 5.

On the other hand, the deformation prevention piece 9a needs to protrude more than the plate thickness t, and according to actual tests, it has been found that a plate thickness t x 3 times or more is optimal, and even in the case of the present invention, the protrusion amount is 3 times the plate thickness t or more. It is outstanding to some extent. In this deformation prevention piece 9a, the bending rigidity of the inner circumferential surface _g2 is increased (as shown in FIG. 11, the inner circumferential surface of the conventional main deck 3 is
This is clear from the fact that the cross-sectional area has increased compared to the _g2 part. ) Substantially its neutral axis l is the inner circumferential surface g ₂
The position of this neutral axis l has been moved to N (N>n), which is larger than the conventional n, and the radius of curvature is R5 (R1-R2≒N) in the center.
In practice, it reduces the amount of shrinkage of this member and has the effect of preventing wrinkles S from forming.

Next, using Figure 12, we will explain the elongation rate when R ₁ = approximately 300 mm, R ₄ = approximately 1000 mm, and R ₅ = approximately 2000 mm, graphed under the same conditions as the conventional Figure 7. As a result, the following very favorable results were obtained.

In other words, the change in elongation rate in section D, where R ₄ = 1000 mm, has a much gentler slope compared to that in Figure 7 shown by the dotted line, and the elongation rate changes naturally from around 2% in straight sections A and B. about
It has reached a growth rate of 10%. Therefore, it can be seen that the sudden change in the elongation rate, especially near the boundary between the straight sections A and B and the arcuate curved section C, is considerably alleviated.

Furthermore, as shown by the dashed line in Figure 12,
It can be seen that the E section with the radius of curvature R5 added near the boundary between the D section and the A section further alleviates the sudden change in the elongation rate. In addition, the radius of curvature R4
The specific values of R5 and R5 are arbitrarily set depending on the material and plate thickness of the stainless steel.

In this way, the parapet member, which should originally be formed with a single radius of curvature, is made into continuous multi-circular arcs such as R1, R4, R5, etc., and by providing deformation prevention pieces, it is possible to prevent bending such as harmful and large wrinkles as in the past. It is clear from FIG. 12 that no deformation occurs.

According to the present invention described above, even a parapet member made of stainless steel plate can be easily bent, and productivity is significantly improved. Furthermore, compared to conventional aluminum alloy parapet members, there is an advantage in that it is possible to provide a passenger conveyor with excellent durability without problems such as surface damage and corrosion.

Note that the external appearance of the balustrade member according to the present invention is not limited to the illustrated main deck, but can also be applied directly to guide decks, lower decks, and the like.

Furthermore, the balustrade member of the present invention is not limited to the illustrated terminal portion, but can also be applied to balustrade members disposed on concave curved portions and convex curved portions, and furthermore, the shape of the terminal portion is shown in FIG. 13. As shown above, there are curved parts with a radius of curvature R11 (R11>R10) on both sides of the basic curved part l ₁ with a radius of curvature R10.
A curved section consisting of l ₂ and a radius of curvature of R12 (R10<R11<R12) l ₃ A curved section consisting of a radius of curvature of R13
Even if _l4 is arranged, there is no problem and the same effect as above can be achieved. Note that the deformation preventing piece is not limited to being bent at a substantially right angle as shown in the example, but if it is completely bent inward, cracks will occur at this bent portion when hard stainless steel is used. Therefore, when the parapet member is made of stainless steel, it is difficult to put it into practical use by completely bending it inward.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a side view of the area near the upper entrance of a conventional passenger conveyor, Figure 2 is a sectional view taken along the - line in Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a perspective view showing the state when bending the parapet member. Figure 4 is a side view of the balustrade member alone, Figure 5 is a local perspective view of the balustrade member, Figure 6 is a sectional view taken along the line - in Figure 5, and Figure 7 is the elongation rate of the balustrade member. FIG. 8 is a side view of a parapet member showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 9 is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 8, and FIG. 10 corresponds to conventional FIG. 6. FIG. 11 is a local explanatory diagram of the balustrade member of FIG. 10, and FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of the balustrade member according to the present invention, and FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of the balustrade member according to the present invention. Drawing illustrating the rate, No. 13
The figures are drawings showing some other embodiments of the present invention. 1...Step, 2...Handrail, 3...
Main deck, 4...Guide deck, 5...Lower deck, 9...Main deck, 9a...Deformation prevention piece.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a device equipped with steps arranged in an endless manner, a handrail that rotates synchronously with the steps, and a balustrade located below the handrail, a part of which draws an arc, the arc part of the balustrade is , consists of a balustrade member made of a stainless steel plate that has a substantially U-shaped cross section and opens toward the center of the arc portion, and has a balustrade member at the open end that is the inner periphery of the arc portion of the balustrade member. Provided with deformation prevention pieces whose tips protrude so as to face each other and prevent deformation of this opening end,
Furthermore, a second circular arc portion formed with a radius of curvature larger than the radius of curvature of this circular arc portion is formed near both ends of the circular arc portion of the parapet member, and a third circular arc portion with a radius of curvature larger than this second circular arc portion. A passenger conveyor railing characterized by a continuous arrangement of parts.