Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B66—HOISTING; LIFTING; HAULING
  • B66B—ELEVATORS; ESCALATORS OR MOVING WALKWAYS
  • B66B11/00—Main component parts of lifts in, or associated with, buildings or other structures
  • B66B11/04—Driving gear ; Details thereof, e.g. seals
  • B66B11/08—Driving gear ; Details thereof, e.g. seals with hoisting rope or cable operated by frictional engagement with a winding drum or sheave
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B66—HOISTING; LIFTING; HAULING
  • B66B—ELEVATORS; ESCALATORS OR MOVING WALKWAYS
  • B66B11/00—Main component parts of lifts in, or associated with, buildings or other structures
  • B66B11/0065—Roping
  • B66B11/008—Roping with hoisting rope or cable operated by frictional engagement with a winding drum or sheave
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B66—HOISTING; LIFTING; HAULING
  • B66B—ELEVATORS; ESCALATORS OR MOVING WALKWAYS
  • B66B7/00—Other common features of elevators
  • B66B7/06—Arrangements of ropes or cables
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D07—ROPES; CABLES OTHER THAN ELECTRIC
  • D07B—ROPES OR CABLES IN GENERAL
  • D07B1/00—Constructional features of ropes or cables
  • D07B1/06—Ropes or cables built-up from metal wires, e.g. of section wires around a hemp core
  • D07B1/0606—Reinforcing cords for rubber or plastic articles
  • D07B1/066—Reinforcing cords for rubber or plastic articles the wires being made from special alloy or special steel composition
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D07—ROPES; CABLES OTHER THAN ELECTRIC
  • D07B—ROPES OR CABLES IN GENERAL
  • D07B1/00—Constructional features of ropes or cables
  • D07B1/06—Ropes or cables built-up from metal wires, e.g. of section wires around a hemp core
  • D07B1/0673—Ropes or cables built-up from metal wires, e.g. of section wires around a hemp core having a rope configuration
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D07—ROPES; CABLES OTHER THAN ELECTRIC
  • D07B—ROPES OR CABLES IN GENERAL
  • D07B1/00—Constructional features of ropes or cables
  • D07B1/16—Ropes or cables with an enveloping sheathing or inlays of rubber or plastics
  • D07B1/162—Ropes or cables with an enveloping sheathing or inlays of rubber or plastics characterised by a plastic or rubber enveloping sheathing
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D07—ROPES; CABLES OTHER THAN ELECTRIC
  • D07B—ROPES OR CABLES IN GENERAL
  • D07B1/00—Constructional features of ropes or cables
  • D07B1/16—Ropes or cables with an enveloping sheathing or inlays of rubber or plastics
  • D07B1/165—Ropes or cables with an enveloping sheathing or inlays of rubber or plastics characterised by a plastic or rubber inlay
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D07—ROPES; CABLES OTHER THAN ELECTRIC
  • D07B—ROPES OR CABLES IN GENERAL
  • D07B2201/00—Ropes or cables
  • D07B2201/20—Rope or cable components
  • D07B2201/2001—Wires or filaments
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D07—ROPES; CABLES OTHER THAN ELECTRIC
  • D07B—ROPES OR CABLES IN GENERAL
  • D07B2501/00—Application field
  • D07B2501/20—Application field related to ropes or cables
  • D07B2501/2007—Elevators

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an elevator provided with a coated hoisting rope as defined in the preamble of claim 1.
• WO 99/43589 discloses an elevator sus- pended on flat belts, which achieves relatively small belt bending diameters on the traction and deflecting sheaves.
• this solution involves the problems of a restricted lay-out solution, disposition of components in the elevator shaft and orientation of de- fleeting pulleys.
• orientation of the polyurethane-coated belts having a load-bearing steel part inside is a problem e.g. in a situation where the car is tilted.
• An elevator implemented in this manner has to be fairly massive, at least as regards the ma- chine and/or the structures supporting it, in order to avoid undesirable vibrations.
• the massiveness of the rest of the elevator structures required to maintain the mutual orientation of the deflecting and traction sheaves increases the weight and costs of the elevator.
• the task of installing and adjusting such a system is difficult and requires great precision.
• WO 01/68973 discloses an elevator provided with coated hoisting ropes, in which the rope has been twisted from a number of coated strands and finally coated even externally with plastic or a similar material.
• the external diameter of the rope is specified as 12 mm, which is a large diameter in comparison with the present invention.
• a problem with this type of a fairly thick rope, which combines a steel wire rope and a relatively thick and soft outer layer, is that, as the rope is running around the driving or deflecting pulleys, the steel core sinks towards the bottom of the rope groove, forcing the relatively thick and soft sheath to yield out of its way.
• the only yielding direction is upward along the edges of the rope groove, and consequently the sheath of the rope tends to be squeezed out of the rope groove. This results in fast rope wear.
• the object of the present invention is to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks and/or to reduce the size and/or weight of the elevator or at least its machinery by providing the possibility of using traction and deflecting sheaves of a smaller diameter.
• a concurrent objective is to achieve more efficient space utilization in the building.
• the elevator of the invention provided with a coated hoisting rope is characterized by what is disclosed in the characterization part of claim 1.
• Other embodi- ments of the invention are characterized by what is disclosed in the other claims.
• the invention makes it possible to achieve one or more of the following advantages, among others:
• the thin surface material layer also makes it possible to achieve a rope with no large differences in the thickness of the filler material layer, which would make the rope non-homogeneous - the surface material layer makes it possible to achieve a good friction between the rope and the rope groove
• the elevator solution can be implemented in a variety of ways, both in the case of elevators with machine above and in the case of elevators with machine below - the weight of the elevator car and counterweight can be completely or at least partially borne by the elevator guide rails
• the invention shortens the time required for the in- stallation of the elevator and reduces the total installation costs
• the light and thin ropes are easy to handle and facilitate and accelerate the installation process considerably - the thin and strong steel ropes of the invention have a diameter of the order of only 3-5 mm e.g. in the case of elevators designed for a nominal load below 1000 kg and speeds below 2 m/s
• the primary area of application of the invention is elevators designed for the transportation of people or freight.
• Another primary area of application of the invention in passenger elevators whose speed range is conventionally about 1.0 m/s or higher but may also be e.g. only about 0.5 m/s.
• the speed is preferably at least about 0.5 m/s, although with large loads even lower speeds may be used.
• elevator hoisting ropes twisted from substantially round and strong wires coated with e.g. polyurethane are used.
• the rope can be twisted in many ways using wires of different or equal thicknesses.
• the average wire thickness is below 0.4 mm.
• Well applicable ropes made from strong wires are ropes having an average wire thickness below 0.3 mm or even below 0.2 mm.
• thin-wired strong 4-mm ropes can be twisted relatively economically from wires such that the average wire thickness in the finished rope is between 0.15 ... 0.25 mm, in which case the thinnest wires may even have a thickness of only about 0.1 mm.
• Thin rope wires can easily be made very strong.
• the invention uses rope wires having a strength over about 2000 N/mm 2 .
• a suitable range of rope wire strengths is 2300-2700 N/mm 2 . In principle, it is possible to use rope wires having a strength as high as about 3000 N/mm 2 or even higher.
• Fig. 1 presents an oblique top view of a typical elevator solution according to the invention in which coated steel ropes are used
• Fig. 2 presents a cross-section of a prior-art coated steel rope
• Fig. 3 presents a cross-section of a coated steel rope used in an elevator according to the in- vention
• Fig. 4 presents a longitudinal section of a part of a rope sheave used in the elevator of the invention.
• Fig. 1 presents a typical elevator solution in which the hoisting rope 9 used is a coated steel rope.
• the elevator is preferably an elevator without machine room in which the hoisting machine 3 is connected via a traction sheave 5 to the hoisting ropes, which are coated hoisting ropes 9 of a substantially round cross-section, arranged side by side and supporting a counterweight 2 and an elevator car 1 moving on their paths, i.e. along guide rails 8 and 7.
• the hoisting ropes 9 placed side by side are fastened to a fixed starting point 10, from where the ropes go downwards towards a deflecting pulley 6 mounted in conjunction with the elevator car 1, substantially below the elevator car.
• Fig. 2 presents a prior-art elevator rope 13 coated with polyurethane 15 or equivalent.
• the thickness of the polyurethane layer 15 and the cross-sectional deformation of the rope have been somewhat exaggerated for the sake of clarity. Due to the thickness of the polyurethane layer 15 or equivalent and its relatively soft mass, the force F acting on the elevator rope tends to press the steel core 14 of the rope towards the bottom of the rope groove of the rope sheave 12. This pressure correspondingly tends to displace the filler, with the result that that filler moves upwards in the direction of the bottom surface of the rope groove as indicated by the arrows and tends to expand outside the rope groove. This large deformation pro- Jerusalem strain on the rope and is therefore an undesirable situation.
• Fig. 3 correspondingly presents the hoisting rope 9 of an elevator according to the invention.
• the core of the rope mainly consists of thin and strong steel wires 16 twisted in a suitable manner.
• the figure is not depicted in scale.
• the covering layer of the hoisting rope consists of a substantially thin sheath 17, which is softer than the core and is made of rubber, polyurethane or some other suitable non-metallic material having substantially hard properties and a high coefficient of friction.
• the hardness of the sheath is at least over 80 Shore A, preferably between 88-95 Shore A.
• the thickness of the sheath has been optimized with respect to durability, but it is still substantially small in relation to the diameter of the load-bearing core formed from steel wires 16.
• a suitable diameter of the steel wire core is between 2-10 mm, and the ratio of the core diameter to the thickness of the sheath 17 is substantially greater than 4, preferably between 6-12 and suitably e.g. about 8.
• a suitable thickness of the steel wire core is about 4-6 mm, and in this case the sheath has a thickness substantially between about 0. 4-0. 6 mm, preferably e.g. 0.5 mm.
• the sheath should preferably have a thickness at least such that it will not be immediately worn away e.g. when a sand grain is caught between the hoisting rope 9 and the surface of the rope groove 18. In practice, a suitable range of variation of the sheath thicknesses could be e.g. 0.3 - 1mm, depending on the thickness of the core used.
• the mutual structure of the sheath 17 and the core is so constructed that the friction between the sheath 17 and the core is greater than the friction between the sheath 17 and the rope groove 18 of the traction sheave 5.
• any undesirable sliding that eventu- ally may occur will occur at the desired place, i.e. between the traction sheave and the rope surface and not inside the hoisting rope between the core and the sheath, which could damage the hoisting rope 9.
• Fig. 4 presents a sectional view of a part of a rope sheave 5 applying the invention.
• the rope grooves 18 have a semi-circular cross-sectional form. Because the hoisting ropes 9 use are considerably thinner and stronger than in a normal situation, the traction sheave and other rope sheaves can be designed to di- mensions considerably smaller than when ropes of a normal size are used. This also makes it possible to use an elevator drive motor of smaller size and lower torque, which leads to a reduction in the acquisition costs of the motor. For example, in an elevator ac- cording to the invention for a nominal load below 1000 kg, the traction sheave diameter is preferably 120-200 mm, but it may even be smaller than this .
• a machine weight as low as about one half of the present machine weights can easily be achieved, which means elevator machines having a weight as low as below 100-150 kg.
• the machine is regarded as comprising at least the traction sheave, the motor, the machine housing structures and the brakes.
• the ratio of machine weight to nominal load is given for a conventional elevator in which the counterweight has a weight substantially equal to the weight of an empty car plus half the nominal load.
• the combined weight of the machine and its supporting elements may be only 75 kg when the traction sheave diameter is 160 mm and hoisting ropes having a diameter of 4 mm are used, in other words, the total weight of the machine and its supporting elements is about 1/8 of the nominal load of the elevator.
• the thin and strong steel ropes of the invention have a diameter of 2.5-5 mm in elevators for a nominal load below 1000 kg and preferably about 5-8 mm in elevators for a nominal load over 1000 kg.
• the smoothness of the rope is also improved.
• the use of thin wires allows the rope itself to be made thinner, because thin steel wires can be made stronger in mate- rial than thicker wires. For instance, using wires of about 0.2 mm, a 4 mm thick elevator hoisting rope of a fairly good construction can be produced.
• the wire thicknesses in the steel wire rope may preferably range between 0.15 mm and 0.5 mm, in which range there are readily available steel wires with good strength properties in which even an individual wire has a sufficient wear resistance and a sufficiently low susceptibility to damage.
• the ropes can be wholly or partly twisted from non-round profiled wires.
• the cross-sectional areas of the wires are preferably substantially the same as for round wires, i.e. in the range of 0.015 mm 2 - 0.2 mm 2 .
• wires in this thickness range it will be easy to produce steel wire ropes having a wire strength above about 2000 N/mm 2 and a wire cross- section of 0.015 mm 2 - 0.2 mm 2 and comprising a large cross-sectional area of steel material in relation to the cross-sectional area of the rope, as is achieved e.g. by using the Warrington construction.
• ropes having a wire strength in the range of 2300 N/m 2 - 2700 N/mm 2 are particularly well suited.
• ropes having a wire strength in the range of 2300 N/m 2 - 2700 N/mm 2 because such ropes have a very large bearing capacity in relation to rope thickness while the high hardness of the strong wires involves no substantial difficulties in the use of the rope in elevators.
• the coating material selected for use in the steel ropes is a material that has good frictional properties and a good wear resistance and is substantially hard as mentioned before.
• the coating of the steel ropes can also be so implemented that the coating ma- terial penetrates into the rope partially or through the entire rope thickness.
• the ropes may be twisted in many different ways.
• the average of the wire thicknesses may be understood as referring to a statistical, geometrical or arithmetical mean value. To determine a statistical average, it is possible to use e.g. the standard deviation or the Gauss distribution. It is further obvious that the wire thicknesses in the rope may vary, e.g. even by a factor of 3 or more.
• the sheath may have e.g. a double-layer structure comprising a somewhat softer outer layer of polyurethane or equivalent that has good frictional properties and a harder inner layer of polyurethane or equivalent.
• the layout of the elevator solution used may differ in may ways from that described above.
• the elevator drive machine 3 may be placed lower in the elevator shaft than in the above description, for instance so that the hoisting ropes 9 pass around the traction sheave 5 by its lower side.
• the deflecting pulleys may correspondingly be fixedly placed in the upper part of the elevator shaft.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Civil Engineering (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Structural Engineering (AREA)
• Lift-Guide Devices, And Elevator Ropes And Cables (AREA)
• Ropes Or Cables (AREA)
• Cage And Drive Apparatuses For Elevators (AREA)

Priority Applications (6)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Related Child Applications (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=8564106

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (8)

Cited By (5)

Families Citing this family (12)

Citations (2)

Family Cites Families (52)

• 2002
  • 2002-06-07 FI FI20021100A patent/FI119236B/fi not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2003
  • 2003-05-28 JP JP2004511211A patent/JP2005529043A/ja active Pending
  • 2003-05-28 CN CNB038131846A patent/CN100341765C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2003-05-28 AU AU2003240887A patent/AU2003240887A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2003-05-28 ES ES03730253.6T patent/ES2498968T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2003-05-28 WO PCT/FI2003/000418 patent/WO2003104131A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2003-05-28 EP EP03730253.6A patent/EP1517850B1/en not_active Revoked
• 2004
  • 2004-10-21 US US10/969,095 patent/US9428364B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related

Patent Citations (2)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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