Multi-car elevator control device for fire floor safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
In multi-car elevator systems, existing technologies fail to prevent rear cars from stopping on or near a fire floor when a front car stops due to a fire, potentially endangering passengers.
Innovation Solution
A multi-car elevator control device that calculates a running-enabled section and an in-fire stop prohibition section to prevent rear cars from stopping near a fire floor by using a running-enabled section calculator, fire floor information acquirer, and running permission decider, ensuring safe evacuation routes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a front car stops near a fire floor during fire emergency operation, then the front car can evacuate passengers, but a rear car may stop on or near the fire floor creating danger for rear car passengers
Solution Approach 1:
The control device calculates a prohibited stop section extending from the fire floor in the car running direction before the rear car arrives. This preliminary restriction prevents the rear car from stopping on or near the fire floor, counteracting the potential harmful effect before it can occur.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution extends the control parameter from simple floor number avoidance to a spatial section concept. By defining a prohibited stop section that spans multiple floors in the running direction, the system creates a buffer zone that ensures safe stopping distance from the fire floor.
2Reliability
If the rear car is controlled to avoid the fire floor, then passenger safety is improved, but the car operation control complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hoistway is segmented into a prohibited stop section and a permissible stop section. This segmentation simplifies the control logic by providing clear spatial boundaries for where the rear car should and should not stop, making the control system more manageable despite the added safety requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The prohibited stop section is calculated in advance based on fire floor information and car position, before the rear car needs to make stopping decisions. This preliminary calculation simplifies real-time control by pre-establishing the safe stopping zones.
Data Source
AI summary
A multi-car elevator control device for controlling an operation in such a manner that a rear car can stop away from a periphery of a fire floor. The multi-car elevator control device includes a running-enabled section calculator for calculating, as a running-enabled section, a range of a floor in which a stop can be carried out to open a door without a collision with a front car which stops, a fire floor information acquiring part for acquiring fire floor information, an in-fire stop prohibition section calculator for calculating, based on the fire floor information, an in-fire stop prohibition section for prohibiting the stop of the car, and a running permission deciding part for deciding a running permission of an elevator by referring to the running-enabled section and the in-fire stop prohibition section.