Elevator

Abstract

To provide an elevator capable of measuring the load loaded on a car with high accuracy.SOLUTION: An elevator 10 includes a car frame 24, and a car 30 installed with an anti-vibration rubber G interposed between itself and the car frame 24. The elevator has a function of measuring a load loaded on the car 30 by measuring a distance between a reference beam 35 provided at a bottom of the car 30 and a lower frame 26 of the car frame 24. The elevator includes: a floor 31 (see Fig.2(a)) made of a honeycomb structure; and frame members 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b (see Fig.3(c)) attached to an end of the floor 31 and supporting the floor 31 (see Fig.3(c)) by the anti-vibration rubber G (see Fig.2(a)). The reference beam 35 is attached at a position different from attachment positions of the frame members 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b at the end of the floor 31.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to elevators, and more particularly to elevator cars. [Background technology]

[0002] In traction elevators, the car is attached to the lower frame of the car frame suspended from the main ropes via vibration-isolating rubber. More specifically, bearings made of steel or other materials are arranged on both ends of the floor of the car, and these bearings are installed directly above the vibration-isolating rubber, thereby supporting the car on the car frame.

[0003] This vibration-isolating rubber is compressed by the compressive force acting due to the load of the car, and as the vibration-isolating rubber is compressed, the car is displaced vertically relative to the lower frame portion of the car frame.

[0004] In addition, some elevators are configured such that a measuring unit such as a distance sensor is placed on the lower frame of the car frame, and the relative downward displacement of the car is measured by measuring the distance to a reference beam (reference member) erected between the support frames via the measuring unit, and the load on the car can be measured from this measurement result.

[0005] In this regard, Patent Document 1 discloses an elevator comprising a pair of floor support beams supporting both ends of the car floor, parallel frames (frame members) installed between the floor support beams and vibration-damping rubber placed below the floor support beams, and an actuator support frame suspended between the parallel frames, configured to detect the live load by measuring the distance between the actuator's lower frame and the actuator support frame (reference member), and configured to prevent a decrease in the accuracy of load detection by providing low-rigidity portions at both ends of the parallel frames. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0006] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-217993 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0007] In the elevator described in Patent Document 1, both ends of the reference member are supported by a frame material, so that when the frame material bends in the longitudinal direction, the reference member also displaces in the vertical direction, which poses a problem that the detection accuracy of the live load cannot be sufficiently improved.

[0008] An object of the present invention is to provide an elevator capable of measuring the load of a car with high accuracy. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] The elevator of the present invention comprises a car frame suspended from a main rope and a passenger car installed with an elastic body interposed between the car frame, and has the function of measuring the load of the passenger car by measuring the distance between the lower frame part of the car frame and a reference member provided at the bottom of the passenger car.The passenger car comprises a floor main body portion including a honeycomb structure and a support portion attached to the end of the floor main body portion and supporting the floor main body portion on the elastic body, and the reference member is attached at a position different from the attachment position of the support portion at the end of the floor main body portion.

[0010] In the elevator of the present invention, the reference member may be installed between both ends of the floor main body portion. [Effects of the Invention]

[0011] According to the elevator of the present invention, by attaching the reference member at a position different from the attachment position of the support, it is possible to suppress the vertical displacement of the reference member due to the deflection of the support. As a result, it is possible to measure the load inside the elevator car with high accuracy by measuring the vertical displacement of the reference member relative to the lower frame portion. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an elevator according to one embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 2] FIG. 2(a) is a diagram showing the configuration of the front side of the car shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 2(b) is a diagram showing the configuration of the side of the car. [Figure 3] Figure 3(a) is a diagram showing the configuration of the car with some of the support frame included in Figure 2 omitted, Figure 3(b) is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration around the reference beam when cut at the AA section shown in Figure 3(a), and Figure 3(c) is a plan view schematically showing the positional relationship between the floor of the car, the vibration-damping rubber, and the reference beam. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a floor structure of the car shown in FIG. [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is a plan view showing the configuration of a comparative example of a car floor portion according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] The vertical displacement of the reference beam when a uniformly distributed load under the same conditions is applied to the floor of the car of this embodiment and the floor of the car of the comparative example was calculated by numerical simulation, and the calculated results for this embodiment are shown by a solid line, and the calculated results for the comparative example are shown by a dashed line. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0013] An elevator 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, the horizontal direction substantially parallel to the axial direction of the drive sheave 16a will be referred to as the horizontal direction X, the horizontal direction perpendicular to the horizontal direction X as the horizontal direction Y, and the vertical direction as the up-down direction Z.

[0014] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an elevator 10. FIG. 2(a) is a diagram showing the front configuration of the elevator car 30 shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 2(b) is a diagram showing the side configuration of the same car 30. Note that in each figure, some components such as car doors are omitted. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 2(b), the elevator 10 includes a hoisting machine 16 installed in a machine room 14 directly above the hoistway 12, a main rope 18 stretched across a drive sheave 16a and a deflector sheave 16b of the hoisting machine 16, and a main control unit 60 that controls the drive of the hoisting machine 16. A counterweight 22 and a car frame 24 are connected to both ends of the main rope 18, respectively.

[0015] As shown in Figures 2(a) and 2(b), the car frame 24 is a support frame for suspending the car 30 from the main rope 18, and is mainly composed of an upper frame 25, a lower frame 26, and vertical frames 27, 28 that connect the two frames 25, 26, and is a frame material having an outer shape of an approximately vertically elongated rectangle that is long in the vertical direction Z when viewed from the front side of the car 30.

[0016] Here, Fig. 3(a) is a diagram showing the configuration of the elevator car 30, with the car frame 24 included in Fig. 2(a) partially omitted. Fig. 3(b) is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of the reference beam 35 and its surroundings when cut along the AA cross section shown in Fig. 3(a). In Fig. 3(b), the cross-sectional portion of the honeycomb core 32 is indicated by dots. Fig. 3(c) is a diagram showing a schematic positional relationship between the lower panel LP of the floor section 31, the vibration-proof rubber G, and the reference beam 35 when viewed from above.

[0017] Furthermore, a pair of support beams 29a, 29b (see FIG. 2(a)) are installed on both ends of the above-mentioned lower frame 26 (see FIG. 2(a)), so as to be perpendicular to the lower frame 26 when viewed from above. Here, the support beams 29a, 29b have almost the same configuration and their peripheral configurations are also almost the same, so in the following explanation, the support beam 29b and the peripheral configuration of the beam 29b will be mainly explained, and the explanation of the support beam 29a and the peripheral configuration of the beam 29a will be omitted as appropriate.

[0018] This support beam 29b has the role of supporting the floor section (main floor section) 31 of the car 30 with anti-vibration rubbers (elastic bodies) G1, G2, G3 (see FIG. 2(b)) (hereinafter, when no particular distinction is required, they will be referred to as "anti-vibration rubbers G") sandwiched between them. This anti-vibration rubber G is attached so that it is compressed and displaced in the vertical direction Z in response to the load acting through the floor section 31. This makes it possible to measure the load of the car 30 based on the displacement of the floor section 31 in the vertical direction Z relative to the support beam 29b.

[0019] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the internal configuration of the floor section 31. As shown in FIG. 4, the floor section 31 is composed of a honeycomb structure including honeycomb cores 32a, 32b, 32c, ... (hereinafter, referred to as "honeycomb core 32" when no particular distinction is required) made of thin metal pieces such as aluminum, frame members 33a, 33b, 34a, 34b (see FIG. 3(b)) attached to both ends of the honeycomb core 32, and an upper panel UP and a lower panel LP covering the upper and lower surfaces of the honeycomb core 32, respectively. The honeycomb core 32 is composed of hollow structures that are approximately hexagonal in plan view and are tightly arranged, and the upper panel UP and the lower panel LP are pressure-bonded and fixed from both the upper and lower surfaces using an adhesive or the like. By constructing the entire floor section 31 in this way using a honeycomb structure, the entire floor of the car 30 can evenly support the load weight (in other words, it can be expressed as a rigid floor) while achieving weight reduction.

[0020] 3(c) are made of channel steel, for example, and function as bearings that support the car 30 on the support beams 29a and 29b (see FIG. 2(a)) via the above-mentioned vibration-isolating rubber G. In this embodiment, the front-side frame members 33a and 34a and the rear-side frame members 33b and 34b are spaced apart in the horizontal direction X by a distance corresponding to the width of the reference beam 35.

[0021] In this embodiment, the size of the distance (gap) between the front-side support beams 29a, 29b and the rear-side frame materials 33b, 34b is set to a length equivalent to the width of the reference beam 35, but the distance between the front-side support beams 29a, 29b and the rear-side frame materials 33b, 34b may be made larger than the width of the reference beam 35. Both ends of the reference beam 35 are attached between both widthwise ends of the center of the lower panel LP, slightly toward the rear side. As shown in Fig. 3(b), this reference beam 35 is a beam member having a shape in which both longitudinal ends protrude slightly upward so as to present a roughly C-shape in side view.

[0022] Furthermore, the reference beam 35 is installed between the widthwise ends of the lower panel LP so as not to overlap with the frame members 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b in a plan view. This makes it possible to prevent the vertical position of the reference beam 35 from changing due to bending of the frame members 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b caused by the load of the car 30.

[0023] Furthermore, a steel member (not shown) is hung between support beams 29a, 29b, and one end of a compensating rope 19 is fixed to this steel member. This compensating rope 19 serves to compensate for the imbalance in the weight of the main rope 18, whose suspended weight varies depending on the elevation position of car 30, and the moving cable (not shown). This compensating rope 19 is hung across a tension wheel 17 installed in a pit 12P, which is the bottom of hoistway 12, and the other end is connected to the lower end of counterweight 22 (see FIG. 1).

[0024] As shown in FIG. 2, the elevator 10 has a measurement unit 44 attached to the upper central surface of the lower frame 26 so as to face the reference beam 35. This measurement unit 44 has the function of measuring the distance to the reference beam 35. The measurement unit 44 is configured, for example, with a capacitance distance sensor. Note that a distance sensor using an ultrasonic or photoelectric sensor may also be used as the measurement unit 44. The measurement value of the measurement unit 44 is transmitted to the main control unit 60 via the sub-controller 50 installed on the ceiling of the car 30.

[0025] The main control unit 60 then calculates the weight of the load in the car 30 based on the measurement value output by the measurement unit 44, and controls the torque that the hoist 16 applies to the drive sheave 16a. This prevents the car 30 from dropping from the landing position due to insufficient torque applied to the drive sheave 16a, or conversely, preventing the car 30 from jumping up due to excessive torque.

[0026] Here, the reference beam 35 described above serves as a measurement object (reference) member for measuring the amount of displacement of the car 30 downward relative to the lower frame 26 when the vibration-proof rubber G is compressed by the load generated when a passenger gets into the car 30. In the following description, the displacement in the vertical direction Z relative to the lower frame 26 will be referred to as relative displacement as appropriate.

[0027] On the other hand, the frame materials at both end portions of the floor portion 31 to which the reference beam 35 is attached are prone to bending in the longitudinal direction due to the action of the live load of the car 30, and if a frame material is located directly above the reference beam 35, the bending of the frame material is likely to cause the reference beam 35 to bend in the longitudinal direction as well. Therefore, when the reference beam 35 is bent in the longitudinal direction, there is a problem in that the live load of the car 30 cannot be calculated accurately based on the relative displacement of the reference beam 35.

[0028] After extensive research into this point, the inventors discovered that the deflection of the reference beam 35 in the longitudinal direction can be reduced by not providing a frame material directly above the portion where the reference beam 35 is attached to the lower panel LP.

[0029] Therefore, in this embodiment, the frame materials 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b are each positioned so that no frame material is attached only to the portion directly above the portion where the reference beam 35 is attached to the lower panel LP (in other words, the reference beam 35 is attached at a position different from that of the frame materials 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b).

[0030] Moreover, it is preferable that the reference beam 35 described above be disposed at a position that passes through the geometric center position of the car 30 in a plan view. By disposing it in this manner, even if there is a difference in the amount of displacement in the up-down direction Z between one end side and the other end side of the reference beam 35 and the reference beam 35 is slightly inclined with respect to the lower frame 26, it becomes possible to accurately calculate the load weight in the car 30 based on the distance to the reference beam 35.

[0031] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of a floor section 131 as a comparative example. As shown in FIG. 5, the floor section 131 has the same configuration as the floor section 31 except that it includes frame members 133 and 134 instead of the frame members 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b. Note that in FIG. 5, components that are the same as those in the floor section 31 of this embodiment are appropriately indicated by the same reference numerals. The frame members 133 and 134 shown in FIG. 5 have the same cross-sectional shape as the frame members 33a and 34a, and are each attached over the entire width of both end portions of the floor section 131. In other words, unlike the frame members 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b, the frame members 133 and 134 are also arranged in positions that overlap with the reference beam 35 in a plan view.

[0032] 6 is a graph showing the results of a numerical simulation using the finite element method to calculate the magnitude of the displacement of the reference beam 35 when a load of 500 kgf is applied as a uniformly distributed load to the entire floor surface of each of the floor section 31 of this embodiment and the floor section 131 of the comparative example. In FIG. 6, the simulation result of the reference beam 35 attached to the floor section 31 of this embodiment is shown by a solid line, and the simulation result of the reference beam 35 attached to the floor section 131 of the comparative example is shown by a dashed line. In FIG. 6, the vertical axis represents the displacement in the up-down direction Z, with the vertical upward direction being positive and the vertical downward direction being negative, and the horizontal axis represents the longitudinal position of the reference beam 35, with the center of the reference beam 35 as the origin, with the right side of the origin being positive and the left side of the origin being negative.

[0033] 6, in the case of the floor portion 131, the deflection of the frame members 133, 134 acts on the reference beam 35, so that the reference beam 35 is curved significantly in the longitudinal direction with its central portion at the bottom, and the displacement in the vertical direction Z also reaches approximately -0.145 mm near the central portion. In this way, when the frame members 133, 134 are provided directly above the reference beam 35, the reference beam 35 is deflected significantly in the longitudinal direction, so that the live load of the car 30 cannot be calculated accurately based on the vertical displacement of the reference beam 35.

[0034] On the other hand, in the case of the floor portion 31, the reference beam 35 is displaced downward by approximately -0.131 mm throughout the entire longitudinal direction, and is displaced uniformly, making it possible to accurately calculate the load capacity of the elevator car 30 based on the vertical displacement of the reference beam 35 relative to the lower frame 26.

[0035] According to the elevator 10 of this embodiment, by attaching the reference beam 35 to a position different from the attachment positions of the frame members 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b at the end of the floor portion 31, it is possible to suppress the relative displacement of the reference beam 35 due to the influence of the deflection of the frame members 33a, 33b, 34a, and 34b. As a result, it is possible to accurately calculate the load weight of the car 30 by measuring the displacement amount of the reference beam 35 relative to the lower frame 26.

[0036] The present invention can be implemented in various forms including improvements, modifications, and variations based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. Furthermore, the invention can be implemented in a form in which any of the features specifying the invention are replaced with other technology within the scope of producing the same action or effect. [Explanation of symbols]

[0037] 10 Car 12 Elevator shaft 16 Hoisting machine 18 Main Rope 19 Compensating rope 22 Counterweight 24 basket frame 25 Upper frame 26 Bottom frame 27,28 Standing frame 29a,29b Support beam 30 Car 31 Floor section (main body of floor) 32a, 32b, 32c, 32 Honeycomb core 33a, 33b, 34a, 34b Frame material (supporting part) 35 Reference beam (reference member) G1, G2, G3, G Anti-vibration rubber LP bottom panel UP Top panel X,Y horizontal direction Z vertical direction

Claims

1. An elevator comprising a car frame suspended from a main rope and a car installed with an elastic body interposed between the car frame and the car frame, and having a function of measuring the load of the car by measuring the distance between a reference member provided at the bottom of the car and a lower frame portion of the car frame, The car includes a floor body portion including a honeycomb structure, and a support portion attached to an end portion of the floor body portion and causing the elastic body to support the floor body portion, and the reference member is attached at a position different from the attachment position of the support portion at the end portion of the floor body portion. Elevator.

2. The reference member is installed between both ends of the floor main body portion.

2. The elevator of claim 1.

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