Elevator Car Frame With Folding Maintenance Support
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need to optimize the use of space in elevator shafts by reducing the length and depth of the shaft while maintaining a large floor area and eliminating the need for separate machine rooms, especially in modern buildings without basements.
Innovation Solution
The design includes a car frame suspended by a belt or steel rope with a counterweight, guide rails, and folding maintenance supports, along with an overspeed governor and load sensors, which allows for compact positioning of components like the traction sheave and deflection pulleys, minimizing space usage by allowing the car to move closer to the shaft ceiling and bottom.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of moving object
If the drive is positioned together with the car in the shaft to eliminate the machine room, then the floor area of the elevator car can be increased, but the space available in the elevator shaft must be used more efficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The maintenance supports are nested within the shaft structure by positioning them in the space between the car frame and the shaft floor. This allows the maintenance supports to occupy otherwise unused space, enabling the car to be positioned closer to the shaft boundaries while maintaining safety clearances.
Solution Approach 2:
The maintenance supports are designed to fold between a vertical working position and a horizontal rest position. This dimensional transformation allows the supports to transition from occupying vertical space during maintenance operations to releasing the car's path during normal operation, effectively utilizing the third dimension (depth) to resolve the space conflict.
2Length of stationary object
If the houses on the roof of the building are eliminated to reduce shaft head space, then the free space in the shaft head is reduced, but the shaft depth must be minimized
Solution Approach 1:
The maintenance supports are extracted from the traditional overhead positioning (which would require shaft head space) and repositioned to fold against the shaft floor. This extraction eliminates the need for roof houses while maintaining maintenance functionality, as the supports are now positioned at the bottom of the shaft rather than the top.
3Length of stationary object
If the depth of the shaft pit is kept low for buildings without basements, then the available space in the shaft is reduced, but the car must still be able to land safely on buffers
Solution Approach 1:
The maintenance supports are nested within the limited shaft depth by positioning them to fold against the shaft floor. This allows the supports to occupy the space between the car frame and the shaft floor, enabling the car to maintain a safe distance from the shaft bottom while still having adequate space for buffer compression during emergency stops.
Solution Approach 2:
The maintenance supports are designed with folding capability that allows them to dynamically transition between vertical and horizontal positions. During normal operation, they fold horizontally to release the car's path; during maintenance, they can be positioned vertically to provide support, adapting to the limited shaft depth conditions.
Data Source
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AI summary
Elevator with a car consisting of a car frame suspended from a supporting means and carrying a platform or an elevator cabin, with a counterweight suspended from the supporting means and with guide rails along which the car and the counterweight can be moved up and down in an elevator shaft, and at least one folding maintenance support, which can be brought into a vertical working position in which it defines a protective space between the car and the bottom of the shaft, and which can be brought into a horizontal rest position in which it releases the car's path until the car lands on the buffer or buffers in the shaft floor, whereas the car frame has at least one lower, horizontally extending cross beam which has at least one first recess on its lower flank which forms a free space into which the at least one maintenance support located in its horizontal rest position can be inserted.