Escalator Drive Decoupling for Force Dissipation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing passenger transport devices like escalators and moving walks face challenges in dissipating high loading forces on the drive shaft, especially in narrow spaces, leading to instability and increased complexity in design.
Innovation Solution
A passenger transport device with a decoupled support structure, featuring a first carrier for the revolving belt and a second carrier for the drive shaft, where the second carrier is mechanically isolated from the first and anchored to the ground, allowing the majority of forces to be dissipated into the floor, enabling a lightweight and narrow design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the support structure is made narrow to accommodate confined spaces, then the device complexity and space requirements are reduced, but the ability to dissipate high loading forces on the drive shaft deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The support structure is divided into two separate carriers: a first carrier for guiding the circulating belt and a second carrier for housing the drive shaft. This segmentation allows each carrier to be optimized independently - the first carrier can be narrow and lightweight for space efficiency, while the second carrier can be robust and anchored to the ground for force dissipation, resolving the contradiction between compact size and force-bearing capacity
Solution Approach 2:
The drive unit (motor and gearbox) is extracted from the first support structure and placed in a separate second carrier that is directly anchored to the ground. This extraction removes the heavy force-generating components from the narrow first carrier, allowing it to remain compact while the anchored second carrier handles all the loading forces independently
2Reliability
If a stable supporting structure is provided to dissipate high loading forces, then the reliability and force dissipation capability are improved, but the device complexity and width increase
Solution Approach 1:
The support system is segmented into two functionally independent carriers connected only by the circulating belt. The first carrier provides simple guidance for the belt, while the second carrier provides stable anchoring for the drive shaft to the ground. This segmentation achieves reliability through proper force path isolation without requiring a complex integrated structure
Solution Approach 2:
The circulating belt acts as an intermediary element that connects the first and second carriers without creating mechanical force transmission paths between them. The belt transmits only the necessary transport function while allowing the two carriers to remain mechanically independent, simplifying the overall structure while maintaining reliability
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a passenger transport device (200), in particular an escalator or a moving walkway, having transport elements (251) interconnected to form an endless belt (250) and a drive (230) for the transport elements (251), wherein the drive (230) comprises at least a motor (231), a transmission (233) and a drive shaft (240) functionally connected by the transmission (233) to the motor (231), the transport elements (251) interconnected to form an endless belt (250) are guided by means of the drive shaft (240) and can be moved by the drive shaft (240), a first carrier (210) in which the transport elements (251) interconnected to form an endless belt (250) are arranged in such a way that they can be guided, and a second carrier (220) in which the drive (230) is arranged, wherein the passenger transport device (200) does not have any mechanical connections between the first carrier (210) and the second carrier (220) which transfers to the first carrier (210) most of the forces which act in operation upon the drive (230) through the transport elements (251) interconnected to form an endless belt (250). The invention also relates to a method for mounting a passenger transport device, in particular an escalator or a moving walkway, at an installation site.