Elevator

Abstract

To provide an elevator capable of setting a maintenance stop height to allow maintenance personnel to easily enter.SOLUTION: An elevator 10 comprises a car 20 having a car door 21, a car door opening / closing device 22 for opening and closing the car door, operating means 52a provided on an operation panel 52 arranged in the car and operable by a user, switching means 53c provided on an operator's panel 53 operable by a maintenance worker in the car by unlocking for switching the operation mode of the elevator, a shaft 12 provided with a plurality of landing floors 40 having landing doors 41, a hoist 14 for raising and lowering the car in the shaft, and a control device 30. The control device is an elevator that executes an access operation mode in which the control device drives the hoist and moves the car to a maintenance stop height H relative to the landing, and the control device can set the maintenance stop height by operating any of the operating means on the operation panel during the access operation mode.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an elevator that can move a car to a desired height during maintenance and inspection. [Background technology]

[0002] Elevators have many devices installed on the outside of the car where passengers ride and inside the hoistway, which require maintenance inspections. To access the equipment on the car or the equipment located higher up in the hoistway, maintenance personnel must open the hall door and get on top of the car.

[0003] For safety reasons, the landings are equipped with automatic landing door closing devices that continue to bias the landing doors in the direction of closing, and when the car lands on the floor and faces the car doors, the landing doors engage with the car door opening and closing device on the car side to open and close. Therefore, during maintenance and inspection, in order to open only the landing doors, a maintenance worker must use an emergency unlocking key. If the landing doors open when the car doors and landing doors are not facing each other, the elevator will be forced to stop operation.

[0004] In order for maintenance personnel to get on top of the car, the car must be moved so that the top of the car is at a height that makes it easy for them to get on from the landing (maintenance stop height).

[0005] Therefore, as a first method, when there are multiple maintenance personnel, one of them gets into the car and lowers the car by operating the maintenance operator's panel, which is usually locked, and stops the car when it is deemed that the car's top surface has lowered to a height that makes it easy to board from the platform. After the car has stopped, the maintenance personnel at the platform opens the platform door with an emergency unlocking key and gets on top of the car.

[0006] However, the first method requires multiple maintenance personnel, and the maintenance personnel must wait in the car during the inspection, which is uneconomical. In addition, in recent years, the need for inspection by one person has increased, so this method is not suitable for multiple maintenance personnel.

[0007] As a second method, if there is only one maintenance worker, he or she gets into the car, opens the door, presses a button inside the car so that the car heads to the floor below, and then exits the car to the platform. This causes the door to close automatically and the car to begin descending. Then, when the maintenance worker thinks that the top of the car has lowered to a height that makes it easy for the maintenance worker to board from the platform, the maintenance worker opens the platform door with the emergency unlocking key, forcing the elevator to stop operation and halting the car's descent. In this state, the maintenance worker opens the platform door and gets on top of the car.

[0008] However, since the elevator will be forced to stop even when the car is traveling at the rated speed or accelerating toward the rated speed, there is a concern that equipment damage may occur.

[0009] Furthermore, with either of the above two methods, the amount the car is lowered depends on the intuition of the maintenance worker, and if the timing of the stop is off, the top of the car may be higher or lower than the landing, making it impossible or difficult for passengers to board.

[0010] Therefore, in the second method in Patent Document 1, the distance D that the car moves when a button inside the car is operated is stored in advance in a memory, and when the button inside the car is operated, the car is lowered by the distance D and stopped. In other words, the height difference between the landing and the upper surface of the car (maintenance stopping height) can be adjusted to a constant value. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0011] [Patent Document 1] JP 2001-163540 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0012] However, the height at which maintenance personnel can easily get on to the car top varies from one maintenance personnel to another. That is, some maintenance personnel find it easier to get on when the car top is higher than the landing, while others find it easier when the landing and the car top are in a flat position, or when the car top is lower than the landing. Also, even if the car top is higher than the landing, whether the difference is 100 mm, 300 mm, etc. varies from maintenance personnel to maintenance personnel.

[0013] For this reason, if the maintenance stopping height is set in advance as in Patent Document 1, maintenance workers are forced to enter at a height that makes it difficult to enter, which reduces work efficiency and increases the burden on maintenance workers.

[0014] An object of the present invention is to provide an elevator that can set a maintenance stop height that makes it easy for maintenance personnel to enter the elevator. [Means for solving the problem]

[0015] The elevator of the present invention is a car having a car door; a car door opening / closing device for opening and closing the car door; An operation means provided on an operation panel disposed in the car and operable by a user; A switching means is provided on an operator's panel that can be unlocked and operated by a maintenance worker in the car, and can switch the operation mode of the elevator; A shaft provided with a plurality of landings each having a landing door; a hoist that raises and lowers the car within the shaft; A control device; Equipped with The control device executes an access operation mode in which the control device drives the hoist and moves the car to a maintenance stop height relative to the landing. An elevator, The control device can set the maintenance stopping height by operating any one of the operation means of the operation panel after switching to the access operation mode by the switching means.

[0016] The operating means has at least two destination floor buttons, The maintenance stop height can be set high by operating one of the destination floor buttons, and can be set low by operating the other.

[0017] After setting the maintenance stopping height, the control device can drive the hoist and move the car to the maintenance stopping height by switching from the access operation mode to another mode using the switching means.

[0018] The landing door can be opened with an emergency unlocking key, After the car moves to the maintenance stop height and stops, a maintenance person can open the landing door from the landing using the emergency unlocking key.

[0019] An indicator is provided within the basket; The control device can display the maintenance stop height on the indicator.

[0020] After switching to the access operation mode by the switching means, the maintenance stopping height can be set by performing a specific operation on the operation means.

[0021] When the landing door of a specific floor is operated with the emergency unlocking key during the access operation mode, the automatic mode is not restored until a specific reset operation is performed on the operating means. Effect of the Invention

[0022] According to the elevator of the present invention, a maintenance technician can operate the control panel inside the car to set the maintenance stop height as desired. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0023] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an elevator according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2]FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an operation panel in a car according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a main portion of an elevator according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an elevator in which the car has been stopped at the maintenance stop height H set by a maintenance worker. [Diagram 5] FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an access operation mode according to one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0024] Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the main configuration of an elevator 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the elevator 10 is configured by disposing a car 20 in a shaft 12 that passes through a building so that the car 20 can ascend and descend. The shaft 12 is provided with landing doors 41 that communicate with each floor 40 of the building, allowing communication between the inside of the shaft 12 and each floor 40.

[0025] A machine room 13 is provided at the top of the shaft 12, and as shown in Fig. 1, the machine room 13 is provided with a hoist 14 and a sheave 15 that is rotated by the hoist 14. A deflector pulley 16 is arranged in parallel with the sheave 15, and a main rope 11 is hung between the sheave 15 and the deflector pulley 16. A car 20 for passengers to board is suspended from one end of the main rope 11, and a counterweight 17 is suspended from the other end.

[0026] The hoist 14 rotates the sheave 15 to raise and lower the car 20. A constantly operating brake 18 is provided in parallel with the hoist 14. The hoist 14 is also provided with a hoist encoder 19 that detects the speed of the car 20. Note that, if a governor encoder is provided, the speed of the car 20 may be detected by the governor encoder.

[0027] The car 20 has car doors 21 for allowing passengers to enter and exit a car compartment 24, and the doors can be automatically opened and closed by a car door opening and closing device 22. Reference numeral 25 denotes a car floor.

[0028] When it is detected that the car 20 faces the hall door 41, the car door opening / closing device 22 becomes operable. Then, by operation of the car door opening / closing device 22, the car door 21 is caused to slide in the opening direction, which causes the hall door 41 to move, and the interior of the car 20 communicates with the hall floor 40, allowing passengers to get on and off.

[0029] The landing door 41 is biased in a closing direction by a landing door automatic closing device 42 using a spring or the like. The landing door automatic closing device 42 is provided with a landing door switch 43a that detects that the landing door 41 is closed during normal operation. The landing door switch 43a is connected to an emergency unlocking device 43 provided on the landing door 41 as shown in Fig. 1, and the landing door 41 can be manually opened by operating the emergency unlocking device 43 by operating an emergency unlocking key.

[0030] Furthermore, hall call buttons 44a, 44b are provided on the hall floor 40. On floors other than the top floor and the bottom floor, there are two hall call buttons 44a, 44b, one at the top and one at the bottom.

[0031] Fig. 2 shows an operation panel 50 arranged in the car 20 according to one embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2(a) shows the operation panel 50 in normal operation, and Fig. 2(b) shows the operation panel 50 during maintenance with the driver's panel 53 unlocked.

[0032] As shown in the figure, the operation panel 50 comprises, from the top, an indicator 51, an operation panel 52, and an operator's panel 53 which is normally locked.

[0033] The indicator 51 can be, for example, a liquid crystal panel, and generally displays the current floor 51a of the car 20 and the moving direction 51b (up or down) of the car 20, as shown in Fig. 2(a). In addition, in the present invention, the maintenance stop height H is displayed in the access operation mode.

[0034] The operation panel 52 is provided with operation buttons 52a operated by general users. The operation buttons 52a may be either press-type or non-contact type, and as shown in Fig. 2(a), include destination floor buttons 521, 522, a door open button 52b, and a door close button 52c. Since the car 20 moves between at least two floors 40, at least two destination floor buttons (reference numerals 521, 522) are provided. The operation buttons 52a constitute the operation means of the present invention.

[0035] As shown in FIG. 2(a), the driver's panel 53 is normally covered by a driver's panel cover 53a, and various switches and buttons appear as shown in FIG. 2(b) when a maintenance worker unlocks a lock 53b. In FIG. 2(b), only two physical switches 53c and 53d related to the present invention are shown among the switches and the like arranged on the driver's panel 53. The switch 53c constitutes the switching means of the present invention. For example, a changeover switch that changes the operation mode of the elevator 10 between an automatic mode and a manual mode can be adopted as the switch 53c. Of course, the physical switch that serves as the switching means may be other switches such as a mode setting switch. The stop switch 53d is a switch that operates or stops the elevator 10.

[0036] In addition, a manual operation switch 61a and an operation suppression switch 61b that are operated by a maintenance worker who gets on the car top surface 23 can be provided on the car top surface 23. The manual operation switch 61a has a button for driving the hoisting machine 14 to move the car 20 upward or downward, and a stop button. In addition, the operation suppression switch 61b is a changeover switch that changes the operation mode between manual mode and automatic mode, similar to the changeover switch 53c (see FIG. 2(b)) on the driver's panel 53 inside the car 20.

[0037] The pit 90 may also be provided with a stop switch 91a similar to the stop switch 53d (see FIG. 2(b)) on the driver's panel 53 in the car 20. The stop switch 91a in the pit 90 is operated by a maintenance worker who descends into the pit 90.

[0038] A control system block diagram of the elevator 10 configured as described above is shown in Fig. 3. Note that Fig. 3 shows only the main parts necessary for explaining the present invention. The control system is mainly composed of a control device 30 installed in, for example, the machine room 13. Some of the functions of the control device 30 can also be executed by a control panel (not shown) arranged in the car 20.

[0039] The control device 30 executes the access operation mode of the present invention in the manual mode in addition to general control of the elevator 10.

[0040] The control device 30 includes a computer such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a non-volatile memory, a storage device such as a volatile memory, and the like. The non-volatile memory is, for example, a flash ROM (Read Only Memory). The non-volatile memory stores in advance a program that causes the control device 30 to execute the control method of the present invention. The volatile memory is, for example, a RAM (Random Access Memory). The volatile memory is used by the CPU as a work area when executing the program, for example.

[0041] As shown in FIG. 3, the control device 30 is connected to the above-mentioned hoist 14, brake 18, hoist encoder 19, car door opening and closing device 22, operation panel 50, hall call buttons 44a, 44b, hall door switch 43a, switches 61a, 61b on the car top surface 23, and stop switch 91a in the pit 90.

[0042] In general control of the elevator 10, the control device 30 receives inputs from the operation panel 50 and hall call buttons 44a, 44b, responds to car calls and hall calls, drives the hoist 14 to move the car 20 up and down, stops the hoist 14 at the destination floor, and operates the brake 18 to stop the car 20. Then, it operates the car door opening and closing device 22 to open and close the doors.

[0043] The elevator 10 of the present invention is characterized in that during maintenance and inspection, the stopping height of the car 20 can be stopped at a maintenance stopping height H desired by the maintenance personnel with respect to the landing floor 40, as shown in FIG. 4. By allowing the maintenance personnel to set the maintenance stopping height H themselves, the boarding height H1 at which the maintenance personnel boards the car top surface 23 from the landing floor 40 can be adjusted to suit their preferences, improving work efficiency and reducing the burden on the maintenance personnel when boarding. In addition, by changing the moving direction of the car 20 and the maintenance stopping height H, not only can the maintenance personnel easily board the car top surface 23, but also various devices on the car top surface 23 can be inspected from the landing floor 40, and the car door opening and closing device 22 and the mechanisms of the car door 21 and landing door 41 can be inspected. Furthermore, by adjusting the maintenance stopping height H at the lowest floor, it is also possible to access under the car from the pit.

[0044] The maintenance stop height H is the distance from the car floor 25 of the car 20 to the landing floor 40 as shown in Fig. 5. However, the maintenance stop height H may be the height H1 of the car upper surface 23 relative to the landing floor 40. Also, the reference on the landing side may be the upper end of the landing door 41 instead of the landing floor 40.

[0045] It is desirable that the maintenance stop height H can be set without the need for an additional operating device, by using existing buttons or switches in the elevator 10 or a combination of pressing orders, simultaneous pressing, long pressing, etc. A specific embodiment is a configuration in which the elevator shifts to an access operation mode in which the maintenance stop height H can be set, and in the access operation mode, the desired maintenance stop height H can be set by operating the operation button 52a.

[0046] The access operation mode will be described below with reference to the flow chart of Fig. 5. When the main operator of the operation is the control device 30, the main operator will be omitted as appropriate.

[0047] For example, a maintenance worker enters the car room 24 with the doors 21, 41 open in the car 20, unlocks and opens the lock 53b of the driver's panel cover 53a, and sets the changeover switch 53c of the driver's panel 53 to manual mode (step S1 in FIG. 5). Next, the operation button 52a is operated in a predetermined manner to switch to the access operation mode (step S2). For example, when the destination floor button 522 for the second floor is pressed as a predetermined operation of the operation button 52a, the control device 30 selects upward movement if the car 20 is located on the lowest floor, and downward movement otherwise.

[0048] In this state, the maintenance stop height H is set by performing a predetermined operation on the operation button 52a (step S3). Specifically, by operating the destination floor button 521 for the first floor during the access operation mode, the maintenance stop height H is set to a predetermined height, for example, minus 500 mm, and by operating the destination floor button 522 for the second floor, the maintenance stop height H is set to a predetermined height, for example, plus 500 mm. To set it to minus 2500 mm, the destination floor button 521 for the first floor is operated five times. Also, if the destination floor button 521 for the first floor is operated up to minus 3000 mm when it should be set to minus 2500 mm, the excessive maintenance stop height H can be returned by operating the destination floor button 522 for the second floor once.

[0049] The maintenance stop height H can be displayed on an indicator 51, for example, as shown in Fig. 2(b), in which case the maintenance staff can adjust the maintenance stop height H while referring to the indicator 51. In the figure, the indicator 51 indicates the maintenance stop height H without the last two digits (+25 for 2500 mm). By displaying the difference in height H1 between the car top surface 23 and the landing floor 40 on the indicator 51 together with the maintenance stop height H, the maintenance staff can confirm the height at which to board the car top surface 23.

[0050] After the maintenance stop height H is set, a predetermined operation is performed to drive the hoist 14 and move the car 20 to the maintenance stop height H. The predetermined operation is, for example, first returning the changeover switch 53c of the driver's panel 53 to the automatic mode (step S4). After the automatic mode is set, the control device 30 operates the car door opening and closing device 22 to close the doors 21, 41 after a predetermined time (for example, after 10 seconds: steps S5 and S6) (step S7). Within this predetermined time, the maintenance worker gets off the car room 24. Then, after the doors 21, 41 are closed, the control device 30 drives the hoist 14 to move the car 20 to the set maintenance stop height H in the set direction (step S8). The amount of movement can be detected by the hoist encoder 19. It is preferable that the hoist 14 is driven at a slower speed than during normal running so that the car 20 can be stopped at the correct position.

[0051] When the car 20 has moved the set distance in the set direction, the control device 30 stops the hoist 14 and activates the brake 18. This causes the car 20 to move the maintenance stop height H set relative to the landing floor 40, as shown in Fig. 4. The height difference between the car top surface 23 and the landing floor 40 is H1.

[0052] It is desirable to inform a maintenance person that the hoist 14 has stopped and the car 20 has moved to the set maintenance stop height H by sounding a buzzer or the like (step S9).

[0053] Thereafter, the maintenance staff inserts the emergency unlocking key into the emergency unlocking device 43 to manually open the landing door 41 (step S10). By operating the emergency unlocking device 43, the landing door switch 43a is turned off, and power to the hoist 14 is prevented. In this state, the maintenance staff can enter the car upper surface 23 located at the height H1 from the landing floor 40, or descend into the pit, to perform various maintenance work.

[0054] A maintenance technician on the car top surface 23 may operate a manual operation switch 61a and an operation inhibition switch 61b arranged on the car top surface 23, as shown in Figs.

[0055] This allows a maintenance worker who has entered the car top surface 23 to operate the manual operation switch 61a with the hall door 41 closed to drive the hoist 14 and move the car 20 to a desired height. Also, the operation inhibition switch 61b can be operated to switch the operation mode.

[0056] Similarly, a maintenance person who descends into the pit 90 can inspect the equipment on the bottom surface of the car 20 from the pit 90. At this time, the maintenance person can operate the stop switch 91a.

[0057] As described above, according to the elevator 10 of the present invention, a maintenance worker gets into the car 20, transitions to the access operation mode by performing a predetermined operation, sets the maintenance stop height H desired by the maintenance worker, and then gets off the car 20. The hoist 14 is then driven by the control device 30 to move the car 20 to the set maintenance stop height H. Since these operations can be performed by a single maintenance worker, they are particularly suitable for one-person inspection.

[0058] The access operation mode can be released by a predetermined operation or condition. For example, the landing door 41 is left open for a predetermined time or more (for example, 10 seconds or more), the changeover switch 53c in the car 20 or the manual operation switch 61a on the car top surface 23 is switched to the manual mode, the stop switch 53d, 61b, 91a in the car 20, the car top surface 23, or the pit 90 is turned to the stop side, or 60 seconds have passed since the hoist 14 stopped. Of course, the release conditions are not limited to these.

[0059] Although it has been described above that the access operation mode can be released by a specific operation or condition, when a maintenance person operates the emergency unlocking device 43 with an emergency unlocking key on a specific floor (for example, the top floor) during the access operation mode and turns off the landing door switch 43a, the automatic mode is not restored until a specific reset operation is performed, and the manual mode (manual low-speed operation) is continued, and the maximum rotation speed of the hoist 14, etc., may be limited. In this way, for example, in a machine-room-less elevator in which the hoist 14 and the control panel are provided at the top of the shaft 12, when a maintenance person gets on the car top surface 23 during the access operation mode to start maintenance work, even if the maintenance person forgets to switch the manual operation switch 61a on the car top surface 23 to the manual mode or even if a specific time has passed, the elevator 10 can be prevented from entering the automatic mode and operating the car 20 at the rated speed.

[0060] The access operation mode can be reset, for example, by pressing a maintenance button provided in the design device of the hall for a certain period of time, shorting a maintenance connector, etc. These maintenance buttons and connectors can be configured to be built into a box in which the hall call buttons 44a and 44b of a specific floor are located.

[0061] Also, instead of the above reset operation, the condition for releasing the access operation mode may be to switch the manual operation switch 61a to the manual mode and then to the automatic mode. In this case, it is considered that the maintenance worker intentionally switched to the automatic mode after switching the manual operation switch 61a to the manual mode without forgetting and getting on the car top surface 23, completing the work and getting off at the landing.

[0062] When the access operation mode is released and all the landing doors 41 are closed, the hoist 14 is driven to land the car 20 so that the car floor 25 coincides in height with one of the landing floors 40. Basically, the car 20 should be landed on the landing floor 40 immediately above, but if the car 20 is between the top floor and the floor immediately below, it should be landed on the floor immediately below.

[0063] The above description is for the purpose of explaining the present invention, and should not be interpreted as limiting the invention described in the claims or restricting the scope of the invention. Furthermore, the configuration of each part of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible within the technical scope described in the claims.

[0064] For example, in the above embodiment, the maintenance stop height H is set using the destination floor buttons 521, 522 and the operation button 52a as operating means, but similar settings and operations may also be performed using a terminal such as a smartphone dedicated to maintenance personnel. [Explanation of symbols]

[0065] 10. Elevator 14 Hoisting machine 20 Basket 22 Cage door opening and closing device 30 Control device 52 Control panel 52a Operation means (operation button) 53 Driver's Panel 53c Switching means (switch)

Claims

1. a car having a car door; a car door opening / closing device for opening and closing the car door; An operation means provided on an operation panel disposed in the car and operable by a user; A switching means is provided on an operator's panel that can be unlocked and operated by a maintenance worker in the car, and can switch the operation mode of the elevator; A shaft provided with a plurality of landings each having a landing door; a hoist that raises and lowers the car within the shaft; A control device; Equipped with The control device executes an access operation mode in which the control device drives the hoist and moves the car to a maintenance stop height relative to the landing. An elevator, The control device can set the maintenance stop height by operating any one of the operation means of the operation panel after switching to the access operation mode by the switching means. Elevator.

2. The operating means has at least two destination floor buttons, The maintenance stop height is set high by operating one of the destination floor buttons, and set low by operating the other of the destination floor buttons.

2. The elevator according to claim 1.

3. After setting the maintenance stop height, the control device switches from the access operation mode to another mode by the switching means, thereby driving the hoist and moving the car to the maintenance stop height.

3. The elevator according to claim 2.

4. The landing door can be opened with an emergency unlocking key, After the car moves to the maintenance stop height and stops, a maintenance worker opens the landing door from the landing using the emergency unlocking key.

4. The elevator according to claim 3.

5. An indicator is provided within the basket; The control device displays the maintenance stop height on the indicator.

5. The elevator according to claim 4.

6. After switching to the access operation mode by the switching means, the maintenance stop height can be set by performing a specific operation on the operation means.

6. The elevator according to claim 5.

7. When the landing door of a specific floor is operated by the emergency unlocking key during the access operation mode, the automatic mode is not restored until a specific reset operation is performed on the operation means.

7. The elevator according to claim 6.

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