Pulley assembly comprising detachable flanges

Abstract

Invention relates a pulley assembly (10) for an elevator system (1), the pulley assembly (10) comprising a pulley (2) for interfacing a traction media (3), bearings (4) for rotationally sup-porting the pulley (2), brackets (5) for connecting the pulley (2) and bearings (4) to a support (6) for the pulley assembly, the pulley (2) is provided with flanges (21) for preventing traction media (3) to dislocate in axial direction of the pulley (2), the flanges (21) are detachably connected to an outer surface (20) of the pulley (2) so that a flange (21) spacing (s) is axially adjustable. The invention also relates to an elevator system comprising the pulley assembly (10).

Description

PULLEY ASSEMBLY COMPRISING DETACHABLE FLANGES

[0001] The present invention relates to a pulley assembly according to the preamble of claim 1. Especially the present invention relates to a pulley assembly for an elevator system, the pulley assembly comprising a pulley for interfacing a traction media, bearings for rotationally supporting the pulley, brackets for connecting the pulley and bearings to a support for the pulley assembly, the pulley is provided with flanges for preventing traction media to dislocate in axial direction of the pulley.

[0002] The present invention relates also to an elevator system according to the preamble of the claim 8.

[0003] The elevator’s traction medias are dimensioned to withstand the variability of loads of system which may vary depending on the elevator capacity, number of passengers or goods weight, building height, car construction and other peripheral attached on car and counterweight. Basically, is possible to vary the quantity of traction media and / or its width to compensate the loading variance. However, this has a consequence that the pulleys used to route those traction medias also vary. An increasing sort of set pulleys are needed according to system and capacity applied. A conventional pulley set usually comprises the following components: 1) a pulley axle - responsible to withstand loads, 2) an external ring - provides interface with a traction media, 3) bearings - responsible to convert the traction media linear movement in radial movement, 4) positioning rings - responsible to keep the bearing on right position. In these conventional pulley sets each of the pulley has its its own bearings and therefore they are able to rotate independently. There are also pulleys that are arranged to a common shaft and they rotate in unity.

[0004] A patent document US 10773929B2 discloses a sheave for a belted elevator system includes a shaft defining a central axis of the sheave, the sheave rotatable about the central axis. A sheave outer member is operably connected to the shaft via at least one bearing and rotatable about the central axis. The sheave outer member is interactive with a tension member of the elevator system. The sheave outer member is formed from a molded plastic material.

[0005] A patent document CN10371946B discloses an elevator guide wheel assembly, the guide wheel of the elevator guide wheel assembly is disposed on the bracket, and the traction belt is driven by the guide wheel, the counterweight and the traction machinea compartment; characterized in that the guide wheel main shaft of the guide wheel is provided with two or more sets of independently rotating guide wheel units, and the guide wheel unit comprises a guide rim and a bearing. The spacer sleeve and the guide wheel bearing, that is, the guide wheel bearing is disposed in the bearing chamber in the guiding rim, the guiding wheel bearing is sleeved into the guiding wheel main shaft, and the two ends of the guiding wheel bearing are respectively clamped and fixed by the bearing spacer sleeve. On the guide wheel main shaft; one side of the traction belt is respectively fitted to the outer diameter of the guide rim side of the guide wheel unit.

[0006] An object of the invention is to provide a pulley assembly for an elevator system that is modular construction, provides easy maintainability and quick to replace if needed on a field service. Thus especially an objective is that the serviceability performance is considerably improved compared to the prior art solutions.

[0007] Objects of the invention can be met substantially as is disclosed in the independent claims and in the other claims describing more details of different embodiments of the invention.

[0008] According to an embodiment of the invention it is provided a pulley assembly for an elevator system, the pulley assembly comprising a pulley for interfacing a traction media, bearings for rotationally supporting the pulley, brackets for connecting the pulley and bearings to a support for the pulley assembly, the pulley is provided with flanges for preventing traction media to dislocate in axial direction of the pulley, wherein the flanges are detachably connected to an outer surface of the pulley so that a flange spacing is axially adjustable. Due the width variability and the number of parts in different elevator systems, it’s hard to produce, install and maintain the required amount of sets of pulleys for different needs. It increases the product complexity and it would be advantageous to have a design which could cover most variabilities with minor changes, like traction media width and quantity. In addition, the bearings are parts which wear by the time and needs to be replaced periodically. In the most of the prior art solution the whole pulley sets covering not only the bearing but also axle, external and internal rings, would be needed to be replaced during a maintenance process on the field, generating a big impact on spare part service, logistics and most important, to the environment. Once it’s needed to replace the old pulley assembly, a better way to do it would be that the bearings would be easy to replace on field and if the pulley itself need to be replaced, that should also be easy to replace. With the present invention, this maintenance aspect istaken care of, the flanges can be adjusted I replaced if needed and bearing is also easy to replace due to the simple construction. Due to the feature that the flanges are detachably connected to an outer surface of the pulley so that a flange spacing is axially adjustable, it makes the design modular so that the same basic pulley is applicable in several different elevator systems. It is easy to broaden the scope of a pulley in terms of load bearing capacity, traction media width and number of parallel traction medias as the flange spacing can be changed accordingly.

[0009] According to an embodiment, the pulley comprises at least two flanges, the flange spacing is configurable according to the traction media width. This is the basic configuration of the pulley, intended for one traction media. This provides an effect by means of which pulley width and traction media width are not fixedly interconnected. According to an other embodiment the pulley comprise multiple flanges to provide interfaces for multiple parallel traction medias. As already explained above, the flange spacing can be adjusted for several parallel traction medias. This broadens the modularity of the pulley in a significant way.

[0010] According to an embodiment the flanges are formed of two half circle rings joined together by bolts. This feature enables very practical design that is relatively simple to manufacture and convenient to install. Each of the half circle covers 180 ° of the pulley outer circumference, or actually slightly less to enable proper tightening, and therefore there are no need to heat expanding or stretch the flanges in any manner in order to get them installed. The flanges can be put on their correct position and screw the bolts tight. The two half circle rings are compressible to the outer surface of the pulley by tightening the bolts.

[0011] According to an embodiment the pulley outer surface and flange inner surface has matching grooving to prevent axial slipping movement of the flange on the pulley outer surface, thus preventing the flange spacing to alter. The pulley outer surface is commonly provided with a grooving to improve traction between the traction media and the pulley. If this same grooving is copied to the flange inner surface, the two matching groovings will form a shape locking pair that prevents any axial movement of the flange, if the flange is tightened even close to a nominal tightness for the bolts.

[0012] According to an embodiment the pulley comprise shafts for connecting the pulley to the bearings. To enable easy bearing change and pulley dismounting, the pulley ispreferably provided with a shaft that fits in to a bearings axle hole and bearing outer circumference is connected to the bracket. Thus the pulley assembly is provided with brackets for connecting the pulley and bearings to a support for the pulley assembly.

[0013] According to an embodiment the above explained technical solution is part of an elevator system comprising an elevator car for moving along a hoistway, driven by traction media, operable connected to the elevator car and a counterweight, the traction media is interacting one or more pulley assemblies for maintaining a proper tension of the traction media, at least one of the pulley assemblies is provided with a drive for operating the elevator car, wherein at least one of the pulley assemblies is according above explained embodiments.

[0014] Thus the idea consist in a pulley responsible to interface the traction media and withstand the loads, two bearings responsible to provide rotational degree of freedom converting traction media linear movement in rotational movement, the brackets responsible to interface the pulley and the bearings with car or counterweight or hoistway structures and transfer the traction forces to car or counterweight frame and vice versa, fasteners responsible to hold all parts on the right place, flanges composed by ring and counter ring and faster and it’s responsible to guide the traction media to avoid the pulley jump out, in addition the flanges are assembled accordingly with traction media width.

[0015] The exemplary embodiments of the invention presented in this patent application are not to be interpreted to pose limitations to the applicability of the appended claims. The verb "to comprise" is used in this patent application as an open limitation that does not exclude the existence of also unrecited features. The features recited in dependent claims are mutually freely combinable unless otherwise explicitly stated. The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims.

[0016] In the following, the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying exemplary, schematic drawings, in whichFigure 1 illustrates an elevator system in general,Figure 2 illustrates a pulley assembly according to an embodiment of the invention,Figure 3 illustrates an exploded view of a pulley assembly according to an embodimentof the invention,Figure 4A illustrates a front view of a pulley assembly according to an embodiment of the invention,Figure 4B illustrates a side view of a pulley assembly according to an embodiment of the invention,Figure 5 illustrates across section of a pulley assembly according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0017] Figure 1 depicts schematically an elevator system 1 comprising an elevator car 100 for moving along a hoistway 8, driven by traction media 3, operable connected to the elevator car 100 and a counterweight 101 , the traction media 3 is interacting one or more pulley assemblieslO for maintaining a proper tension of the traction media 3, at least one of the pulley assemblies 10 is provided with a drive 9 for operating the elevator car 100, a support 6 is provided for the pulley assemblies 10 to be connected to the structures of the hoistway 8.

[0018] Figure 2 depicts schematically an embodiment of a pulley assembly 10 in as assembled for use. It is shown a pulley assembly 10 for an elevator system 1 , the pulley assemby 10 comprising a pulley 2 for interfacing a traction media 3 (see figure 1), bearings 4 for rotationally supporting the pulley 2, brackets 5 for connecting the pulley 2 and bearings 4 to a support 6 (see figure 1) for the pulley assembly, the pulley 2 is provided with flanges 21 for preventing traction media 3 (see figure 1) to dislocate in axial direction of the pulley 2. The flanges 21 are detachably connected to an outer surface 20 of the pulley 2 so that a flange 21 spacing s is axially adjustable.

[0019] Figure 3 depicts an exploded view of the pulley assembly of Fig. 2. Here it can be noted that the pulley 2 has a cylindrical overall shape and the pulley 2 has a specific grooved outer surface 20 for interfacing a traction media 3. (see figure 1) This grooved outer surface 20 is illustrated to be divided in two sections, separatable to four subsections by flanges 21 that are detachably connected to the outer surface 20. The distance remaining between the flanges 211 is the flange spacing s. As can be noted, the pulley construction allows easy axial adjustability of the flange spacing s. For example, in Figs. 2 and 3 it is presented that the pulley assembly would be configured to four parallel traction medias, it would be easy to reduce the number by one or two traction medias byjust removing one or two flanges 21 and adjust the spacing s to match the traction media width.

[0020] Further in Fig 3 it is presented an embodiment of the flange 21 construction of Fig 2, now exploded so that the flanges 21 are formed of two half circle rings 211 joined together by bolts 212. The two half circle rings 211 are compressible to the outer surface 20 of the pulley 2 by tightening the bolts 212. In Fig 3 it can also be noted that the pulley 2 outer surface 20 and flange 21 inner surface 210 has matching grooving to prevent axial slipping movement of the flange 21 on the pulley outer surface 20, thus preventing the flange 2 spacing s to alter unintentionally.

[0021] In Fig 3 it is also presented an embodiment where the pulley 2 comprise shafts 23 for connecting the pulley 2 to the bearings 3. Is in Fig 3 it is presented, to enable easy bearing 5 change and pulley 2is mounting, the pulley 2 is provided with a shaft 23 that fits in to a bearings 4 axle hole and bearing outer circumference is connected to the bracket 5. Due to this construction, a conventional bearing pulling tool can be used when a-maintenance need to be done. The bracket is also designed so that the whole pulley assembly 10 is easy to remove from the supports 6 (not shown in Fig. 3).

[0022] In Figures 4A it is presented a front view and 4B it is presentented a side view of the embodiment of the pulley assemblylO, as already presented in Figure 2 and Figure 3. In Fig. 4 the flanges 21 are attached so that the distance between two flanges forms the spacing s. There is a certain height in the flange 21 from the pulley outer surface 20 so that the traction media does not jump over the flange during operation of the elevator. This kind of event could lead to a failure of the operation of the elevator and that shall be prevented. Fig 4B depicts one possible bracket design that would be convenient in maintenance operation, easy to dismantle and quick to assemble back to is operative position and-also practical to line up so that the traction media runs smoothly over the pulley assembly 10.

[0023] In Figure 5 it is still shown an embodiment of a cross section of a pulley 2 and flange 21 as its half circle rings 211. It has grooved inner surface 210 matching the pulley grooved outer surface 20. The pulley 2 outer surface 20 and flange 21 inner surface 210 has matching grooving to prevent axial slipping movement of the flange 21 on the pulley outer surface 20. The flange half rings 211 are joined together by bolts 212.

[0024] While the invention has been described herein by way of examples in connection with what are, at present, considered to be the most preferred embodiments, it is obvious to the skilled person that, along with the technical progress, the basic idea of the invention can be implemented in many ways. The invention and its embodiments are thus not limited to the examples and samples described above but they may vary within the contents of patent claims and their legal equivalents. The details mentioned in connection with any embodiment above may be used in connection with another embodiment when such combination is technically feasible.

Claims

Claims1 . A pulley assembly 10 for an elevator system 1 , the pulley assembly 10 comprising a pulley 2 for interfacing a traction media 3, bearings 4 for rotationally supporting the pulley 2, brackets 5 for connecting the pulley 2 and bearings 4 to a support 6 for the pulley assembly , the pulley 2 is provided with flanges 21 for preventing traction media 3 to dislocate in axial direction of the pulley 2 , wherein in that the flanges 21 are detachably connected to an outer surface 20 of the pulley 2 so that a flange 21 spacing s is axially adjustable.

2. A pulley assembly 10 according to claim 1 , wherein in that the pulley 2 comprises at least two flanges 21 , the flange 21 spacing s is configurable according to the traction media 3 width.

3. A pulley assembly 10 according to claim 1 , wherein in that the pulley 2 comprise multiple flanges 21 to provide interfaces for multiple parallel traction medias 3.

4. A pulley assembly 10 according to any of the preceding claims, wherein in that the flanges 21 are formed of two half circle rings 211 joined together by bolts 212.

5. A pulley assembly 10 according to claim 4, wherein in that the two half circle rings 211 are compressible to the outer surface 20 of the pulley 2 by tightening the bolts 212.

6. A pulley assembly 10 according to claim 4, wherein in that the pulley 2 outer surface 20 and flange 21 inner surface 210 has matching grooving to prevent axial slipping movement of the flange 21 on the pulley outer surface 20, thus preventing the flange 2 spacing s to alter.

7. A pulley assembly 10 according to claim 1 , wherein in that the pulley 2 comprise shafts 23 for connecting the pulley 2 to the bearings 3.

8. An elevator system 1 comprising an elevator car 100 for moving along a hoistway 8, driven by traction media 3, operable connected to the elevator car 100 and a counterweight 101 , the traction media 3 is interacting one or more pulley assemblies! 0 for maintaining a proper tension of the traction media 3, at least one of the pulley assemblies 10 is provided with a drive 9 for operating the elevator car100, wherein in that at least one of the pulley assemblies 10 is according to claim

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