WO1999033743A1

WO1999033743A1 - Elevator car

Info

Publication number: WO1999033743A1
Application number: PCT/FI1998/001016
Authority: WO
Inventors: Matti RÄSÄNEN; Kari Pahkala; Esa Suorsa; Giordano Albertazzi; Roberto Albertoni
Original assignee: Kone Corporation
Priority date: 1997-12-23
Filing date: 1998-12-23
Publication date: 1999-07-08
Also published as: FI974614A; FI107250B; AU1762399A; FI974614A0

Abstract

An elevator car comprising a car frame acting as a load-bearing structure, which comprises vertical beams (1), a top member (2) and a bottom member (3), and a car, which comprises wall elements (4), a ceiling (5) and a floor (6). According to the invention, the vertical beams (1) of the car frame constitute a part of the wall elements (4).

Description

ELEVATOR CAR

The present invention relates to an elevator car as defined in the preamble of claim 1.

Traditionally, the load-bearing structure of an elevator car consists of a car frame, which is a rigid frame of a substantially rectangular form, which is provided with sliding guides and safety gears and to which the elevator ropes are attached. The car itself is built inside the rigid car frame, in other words, the floor is built upon the bottom member of the car frame, the walls are built within the vertical beams and the car top is built below the top member of the car frame. Thus, the car frame acts as a rigid load- bearing element for the whole structure, so the car itself can be built from relatively light materials.

A drawback with prior-art technology is complexity of the elevator car and car frame structure. The car frame is relatively expensive to manufacture, it requires plenty of raw material and its installation in the elevator shaft is a slow and difficult business. Moreover, the car takes up a large space in the eleva- tor shaft, so that, because of the car frame, buildings have to be provided with relatively large elevator shafts or alternatively relatively small elevator cars .

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks described above. A specific object of the present invention is to disclose a new type of elevator car structure that makes it possible to achieve a reduction in the total costs of the elevator car, i.e. in the raw material costs, manufacturing costs and installation costs. A further object of the invention is to enable a more efficient use of the space delimited by the elevator shaft.

As for the features characteristic of the invention, reference is made to the claims.

The elevator car of the invention comprises a car frame acting as a load-bearing structure, which comprises vertical beams at the sides of the car, a top member and a bottom member, and a car comprising wall elements, a ceiling and a floor. According to the invention, the vertical beams of the car frame form part of the wall elements. Thus, the invention is based on the insight that the car frame need not be constructed as a completely separate structure external to the car, but at least the vertical beams forming the sides of the car frame can be integrated as essential parts of the walls of the elevator car. The vertical beams thus form a part of the walls of the elevator car, in other words, they may form a part of the exterior surfaces of the walls of the elevator car, a part of the interior surfaces of the walls of the elevator car or a part of both the exterior and interior surfaces, or the vertical beams acting as a load-bearing structure may remain substantially invisible inside the interior surfaces of the elevator car.

The vertical beams acting as a load-bearing structure of the elevator car are preferably so shaped that their outer surface is substantially flush with the outer surfaces of the other wall elements of the elevator car. Similarly, the inner surfaces of the vertical beams may be substantially flush with the inner surfaces of the other wall elements. If necessary for structural rigidity, it is naturally possible to use vertical beams somewhat thicker than the other wall elements, in which case they preferably protrude some distance outside the outer surfaces of the other wall elements .

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the vertical beams remain somewhat recessed from the plane of the interior surfaces of the other wall elements. In this case, the vertical beams can be provided with separate surface panels to achieve even interior surfaces or to give them a desired shape.

In an embodiment of the invention, the vertical beam is made of a rigid profiled beam in which a space is provided for a push-button unit. Such a profiled beam may also comprise a space for a lighting module. In general, the profiled beam may consist of a sufficiently rigid steel plate with its longitudinal edges bent up from the main plane of the plate to form stiffening parts. The stiffening parts may be bent e.g. so as to form an open or closed quadrangular pro- file.

In an embodiment of the invention, the vertical beam is a rigid profiled beam so shaped that it also has an outwardly opening vertical slot or channel, which can be used as a guide space which partly accommodates a guide rail mounted in the elevator shaft to guide the elevator car as the car is moving in the shaft. In this manner, the gauge between the guide rails in the elevator shaft is minimised.

In an embodiment of the invention, the separate bottom member of the car frame has been replaced with a rigid- frame floor. In this case, rigid wall elements forming vertical beams are rigidly connected together by their lower ends by a sturdy and rigid floor so that no separate bottom member is needed at all. The floor preferably consists of a ^'rigid frame or frame beams provided with a suitable topping plate. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the edges of the topping plate are bent down over the edges of the frame so that the topping plate edges form mounts on which the lower ends of the car wall elements can be mounted and to which they can be attached.

In an embodiment of the invention, the car structure comprises supports placed below the floor for the at- tachment of safety gears and slide shoes sliding along guide rails. The rope pulleys may also be attached to these supports or to other parts below the floor.

In an embodiment of the invention, the top member of the car frame is formed by the car ceiling or a part of the car ceiling. Depending on the suspension of the car and the positions of the pulleys on the car, the top member can be implemented as a ceiling element of suitable thickness as appropriate in each case.

The elevator car of the invention has significant advantages as compared with prior art. According to the invention, the entire car frame acting as a load- bearing structure can be implemented as parts of the car instead of a separate frame surrounding the car. This reduces material consumption and allows the use of relatively cheap roll formed profiled members in the structures. A lighter car structure can be used and a space saving in the elevator shaft is achieved, which means that larger elevator cars can be used in the same shaft or smaller elevator shafts can be built. In addition, the number of parts needed in the elevator car is significantly reduced, thus allowing substantially faster installation of the car in the shaft. In the following, the invention will be described in detail by referring to the attached drawings, wherein

Fig. 1 presents an elevator car according to the in- vention, and

Fig. 2 presents the car frame of the elevator car in Fig. 1.

Figures 1 and 2 present and elevator car according to the invention, in which the car frame has been integrated as an essential part of the elevator car. The car consists of rigid straight vertical beams 1, which are rigidly connected together by their upper ends via a top member 2. At their lower ends, the vertical beams are rigidly connected to each other via a bottom member 3, i.e. a floor 6. In this embodiment, the vertical beams consist of elongated profiled members made from steel plate by bending. It has edge stiffening portions 17 and between them a middle portion 18 of straight plate. The top member 2 is also made of the same shaped bar.

The bottom member 3 or rigid floor 6 consists of a rigid frame, i.e. a frame structure welded together or separate rigid frame beams attached to each other and to a metal plate 12 placed on top of them. On each side of the floor, the edges of the topping plate have been bent down over the edges of the floor frame and, at the level of the lower surface of the frame, they have been bent outward and further upward to form a trough-like mount 13 on each edge of the floor.

Placed below the floor 6 of the car frame are legs 14 substantially forming extensions of the vertical beams

1, to which legs the slide shoes 15 and safety gears

16 of the elevator are attached. They serve as sup- ports for the attachment of rope pulleys 19. Corresponding slide shoes 15 are also mounted on the upper ends of the vertical beams 1.

When the elevator car is to be installed in the shaft, a rigid car frame as shown in Fig. 2 is first installed one component at a time in the shaft, where it is supported by ropes and held steady by the guide rails 20. Now, with the car frame acting as a load- bearing structure ready in the shaft, the floor 6 of the elevator car is also already in place, thus greatly facilitating the rest of the car installation work. The vertical beams 1 constitute one pair of wall elements of the elevator car, and the actual car wall elements 4 are mounted on the mounts 13 at the edges of the floor on either side of the vertical beams 1 so that the outer surface 8 of the vertical beam will be substantially flush with the outer surface 7 of the other wall elements 4.

In the embodiment described, the edge stiffening portions 17 have been bent inwards so that the planar middle portion 18 of the profiled member forms the outer surface of the vertical beam. Thus, a space 11 is formed between the edge stiffening portions 17 on the inner side of the profiled member, which space can be used to accommodate e.g. a push-button unit or a lighting module. Finally, the inner surface of the vertical beam 1 is topped by a cover panel 10 to make the vertical beam area flush with the interior surface of the other wall elements.

As for the car top, the top member 2 correspondingly constitutes one of the ceiling elements, while the other ceiling elements 5, supported by the wall elements, are mounted on either side of the top member 2 at substantially the same horizontal plane with it. In the elevator car, the thickness of the vertical beams 1 together with the cover panels 10 is substantially equal to that of the wall elements 4. Thus, the side walls of the elevator car are of substantially uniform thickness over their entire width and height, so they will take up as little shaft space as possible. Correspondingly, as the elevator floor 6 constitutes the bottom member 3 of the car frame, no space is needed for separate stiffening elements below the car. Therefore, the rope pulleys 19 can be mounted as illustrated by the figures, being disposed on opposite sides of the plane of the guide rails 20 on opposite sides of the elevator car. In this manner, the pulleys can be aligned with the centre of mass of the elevator car, which is not possible in elevator cars provided with traditional car frames, in which the car frame part below the floor is an obstacle to a corresponding arrangement.

In the foregoing, the invention has been described by way of example by the aid of the attached drawings, but different embodiments of the invention are possible within the scope of the inventive idea defined by the claims.

Claims

1. Elevator car comprising

- a car frame acting as a load-bearing structure, which comprises vertical beams (1), a top member (2) and a bottom member (3) , and

- a car, which comprises wall elements (4) , a ceiling (5) and a floor (6) , characteris ed in that the vertical beams (1) of the car frame constitute a part of the wall elements (4) .

2. Elevator car as defined in claim 1, charac terised in that the vertical beam (1) comprises an outer surface (8) that is substantially flush with the exterior surface (7) of the wall elements (4) .

3. Elevator car as defined in claim 1, charac terised in that the vertical beam (1) comprises a cover panel (10) that is substantially flush with the interior surface (9) of the wall elements (4) .

4. Elevator car as defined in any one of claims 1 - 3, characterised in that the vertical beam (1) consists of a rigid profiled member comprising a space (11) for a push-button unit.

5. Elevator car as defined in any one of claims 1 - 3, characterised in that the vertical beam (1) consists of a rigid profiled member comprising a space (11) for a lighting module.

6. Elevator car as defined in any one of claims 1 - 5, charac terised in that the vertical beam (1) comprises a guide space opening outward from the elevator car, in which space a part of an elevator guide rail passes as the car is moving.

7. Elevator car as defined in any one of claims 1 - 6, characterised in that the bottom member (3) consists of a floor (6) rigidly connecting the verti- cal beams (1) together by their lower ends.

8. Elevator car as defined in claim 7, charac terised in that floor (6) comprises a frame and a topping plate (12) covering the frame, the edges of said topping plate are being bent down over the edges of the frame to form mounts (13) for the wall elements .

9. Elevator car as defined in claim 7 or 8, char - acterised in that it comprises supports (14) below the floor, to which the safety gears (16) and slide shoes (15) are attached.

10. Elevator car as defined in any one of claims 1 - 9, characteri sed in that the top member (2) consists of the ceiling or a part of the ceiling (5) of the elevator car.