The invention relates to a device for descending people from, for example, a building, comprising:
Such a device is known from WO 2007/113886 A1. When evacuating a harness is put on a person and this harness is connected to the coupling means. Then the person gets out of the window and the descending cable unwinds controlled from the cable drum. The brake ensures that the descending cable does not unwind to quickly. After this person is down, he/she puts off the harness, after which the descending cable again winds on the cable drum by winding springs present in the cable drum. Now, a second person can descend in the same manner.
An object of the invention is to provide a device of the type described in the opening paragraph which enables people to be evacuated more rapidly than with the known apparatus. To this end, the device according to the invention, is characterized in that the device further comprises at least one descending unit which is present on the descending cable in the ceiling unit and is movable along the descending cable, which descending unit comprises:
After a first person is descending by the cable drum, further persons may descend along the descending cable with the aid of the descending units. There is no need to wait until the first person is completely down. One does not have to wait until the second person is down but shortly after the second person the third person can start to descend. The descending cable does not have to be wound on the cable drum every time a person has descended. This allows people to be evacuated more rapidly than with the known apparatus.
The freewheel prevents activation of the centrifugal brake during the descent of the first person.
The cable wheel can hereby be fixed on the cable wheel shaft and the cable wheel shaft may be journalled in the housing or the cable wheel shaft may be fixed in the housing and the cable wheel mounted on the cable wheel shaft.
An embodiment of the device according to the invention is characterized in that the descending unit comprises a planetary gear set with three rotation bodies, of which a first rotation body is connected to said cable wheel and a second rotating body is connected to the first part of the centrifugal brake. Hereby, the third rotation body can be attached to the housing or to the cable wheel shaft if the latter is attached to the housing. The centrifugal brake brakes the descending unit while descending along the descending cable. Using a planetary gear set, the descending unit can be kept compact.
A further embodiment of the device according to the invention is characterized in that a third rotation body of the planetary gear set is attached to a further centrifugal brake comprising two inter-connectable further parts, of which a first further part is connected to the cable wheel and a second further part, in the direction of rotation, is fixed relative to the housing. This further centrifugal brake ensures that the descent of a heavy additional person is inhibited if the descent rate is likely to rise above a certain limit due to insufficient braking capacity of the centrifugal brake.
A further embodiment of the device according to the invention, in that:
This construction makes it possible that the descending unit can pass the cable guide. The cable guide is formed by a rotatable cable wheel which is present on a wheel axle. The star wheel collides during descent with a tooth against the wheel axle and rotates about the wheel axle through an angle of about 90 degrees from a horizontal to a vertical position. During the rotation of the descending unit and the star wheel the further coupling means move through the guide grooves in the teeth of the star wheel and the further coupling means maintain the same orientation. Preferably, the descending unit has two star wheels, one on each side of the descending cable.
Preferably, the descending cable is turned around the cable wheel over an angle of at least 240 degrees. As a result, the chance of slipping of the descending cable over the cable wheel is greatly reduced.
The invention will be further elucidated below on the basis of drawings. These drawings show an embodiment of the device according to the present invention. In the drawings:
In the
The ceiling unit is equipped with a braked winch provided with a cable drum 25 on which the descending cable is wound. The cable drum is connected to the frame of the ceiling unit via a centrifugal brake (not shown in the figures). The centrifugal brake has two parts cooperating with each other, one of which is fixed in the direction of rotation to the cable drum and the other one is fixed in the direction of rotation to the frame of the ceiling unit. Between the cable drum 25 and the cable guide 19 descending units 27 are present on the descending cable 21.
The first person descending 29 does not use the descending units 27 but lowers himself down through the braked winch. To this end, this person first pulls a harness which then is fastened to the fastening eye 23. Then this person 29 gets out of the window 17, and the descending cable 21 unwinds from the cable drum 25 in a manner controlled by the centrifugal brake; see
In
The cable wheel 37 is connected to the cable wheel shaft via a free-wheel 41 (see
The cable wheel shaft 35 is further connected to the housing via a centrifugal brake 43. This centrifugal brake ensures that the rotational speed of the cable wheel 37 and thereby the descent speed is not too high. This centrifugal brake has two parts connected to each other, of which a first part is connected to the cable wheel shaft or the cable wheel and a second part in the direction of rotation is fixed relative to the housing 33.
The descending unit 27 has a planetary gear set 44 with three rotation bodies, of which a first rotation body 45 is formed by a ring wheel which is connected to the cable wheel 37 via the free wheel 41 and a second rotation body 47 is formed by a sun wheel which is mounted on the cable wheel shaft 35. A third rotation body 49 of the planetary gear set is formed by a planet carrier on which there are three rotatable planet gears 51 which are in engagement with the ring gear and the sun gear. This planet carrier is fastened to a first part of a further centrifugal brake 53 (not visible in the figures because it is located at the rear side) which is connected to the cable wheel or the cable wheel shaft. The second part of this further centrifugal brake is also fixed in rotation direction to the housing.
The descending unit 27 further has a star wheel 55 which is rotatably connected to the housing and which is provided with teeth 57. Close to the end 59 of the teeth these teeth are provided with a guide groove. The guide grooves in the teeth extend along a circular arc 61. The descending unit is further provided with further coupling means formed by a suspension element 63 provided with a further fastening eye 65. This suspension element is provided with a guide profile 67 which extends over a distance 69 along a portion of the circular arc 61. This distance 69 is greater than or equal to two times the distance along the arc of a circle between two neighboring teeth 57. As a result, the guide profile 67 is always located in two guide grooves 59 so that it continues to maintain an orientation that ensures that during rotation of the star wheel the guide profile ends up in the guide groove of a next tooth.
By way of illustration,
In
Although the present invention is elucidated above on the basis of the given drawings, it should be noted that this invention is not limited whatsoever to the embodiments shown in the drawings. The invention also extends to all embodiments deviating from the embodiments shown in the drawings within the context defined by the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2015134 | Jul 2015 | NL | national |
2016343 | Mar 2016 | NL | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/NL2016/050511 | 7/8/2016 | WO | 00 |