1. Field
The present invention relates to an elevator, as discussed below, and to an elevator traction sheave, as also discussed below.
2. Description of Related Art
The operation of a conventional traction sheave elevator is based on a solution in which steel wire ropes serving as hoisting ropes and also as suspension ropes are moved by means of a metallic traction sheave, often made of cast iron, driven by an elevator drive machine. The motion of the hoisting ropes produces a motion of a counterweight and elevator car suspended on them. The tractive force from the traction sheave to the hoisting ropes, as well as the braking force applied by means of the traction sheave, is transmitted by the agency of the friction between the traction sheave and the ropes.
The coefficient of friction between the steel wire ropes and the metallic traction sheaves used in elevators is often insufficient in itself to maintain the required grip between the traction sheave and the hoisting rope in normal situations during elevator operation. The friction and the forces transmitted by the rope are increased by modifying the shape of the rope grooves on the traction sheave. The traction sheaves are provided with undercut or V-shaped rope grooves, which create a strain on the hoisting ropes and therefore also cause more wear of the hoisting ropes than rope grooves of an advantageous semi-circular cross-sectional form as used e.g. in diverting pulleys. The force transmitted by the rope can also be increased by increasing the angle of bite between the traction sheave and the ropes, e.g. by using a so-called “double wrap” arrangement.
In the case of a steel wire rope and a cast-iron or cast-steel traction sheave, a lubricant is almost always used in the rope to reduce rope wear. A lubricant especially reduces the internal rope wear resulting from the interaction between rope strands. External wear of the rope consists of the wear of surface wires mainly caused by the traction sheave. The effect of the lubricant is also significant in the contact between the rope surface and the traction sheave.
To provide a substitute for the rope groove shape that causes rope wear, inserts placed in the rope groove to achieve a greater friction coefficient have been used. Such prior-art inserts are disclosed e.g. in specifications U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,762 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,196. The inserts described in these specifications are relatively thick. The rope grooves of the inserts are provided with a transverse or nearly transverse corrugation creating additional elasticity in the surface portion of the insert and in a way softening its surface. The inserts undergo wear caused by the forces imposed on them by the ropes, so they have to be replaced at intervals. Wear of the inserts occurs in the rope grooves, at the interface between insert and traction sheave and internally.
It is an object of the invention to achieve an elevator in which the traction sheave has an excellent grip on a steel wire rope and in which the traction sheave is durable and of a design that reduces rope wear. Another object of the invention is to eliminate or avoid the above-mentioned disadvantages of prior-art solutions and to achieve a traction sheave that provides an excellent grip on the rope and is durable and reduces rope wear. A specific object of the invention is to disclose a new type of engagement between the traction sheave and the rope in an elevator. It is also an object of the invention to apply said engagement between the traction sheave and the rope to possible diverting pulleys of the elevator.
As for the features characteristic of the invention, reference is made to the claims.
In an elevator provided with hoisting ropes of substantially round cross-section, the direction of deflection of the hoisting ropes can be freely changed by means of a rope pulley. Thus, the basic layout of the elevator, i.e. the disposition of the car, counterweight and hoisting machine can be varied relatively freely. Steel wire ropes or ropes provided with a load-bearing part twisted from steel wires constitute a tried way of composing a set of hoisting ropes for suspending the elevator car and counterweight. An elevator driven by means of a traction sheave may comprise other diverting pulleys besides the traction sheave. Diverting pulleys are used for two different purposes: diverting pulleys are used to establish a desired suspension ratio of the elevator car and/or counterweight, and diverting pulleys are used to guide the passage of the ropes. Each diverting pulley may be mainly used for one of these purposes, or it may have a definite function both regarding the suspension ratio and as a means of guiding the ropes. The traction sheave driven by the drive machine additionally moves the set of hoisting ropes. The traction sheave and other eventual diverting pulleys are provided with rope grooves, each rope in the set of hoisting ropes being thus guided separately.
When a rope pulley has against a steel wire rope a coating containing rope grooves and giving great friction, a practically non-slip contact between rope pulley and rope is achieved. This is advantageous especially in the case of a rope pulley used as a traction sheave. If the coating is relatively thin, the force difference arising from the differences between the rope forces acting on different sides of the rope pulley will not produce a large tangential displacement of the surface that would lead to a large extension or compression in the direction of the tractive force when the rope is coming onto the pulley or leaving it. The greatest difference across the pulley occurs at the traction sheave, which is due to the usual difference of weight between the counterweight and the elevator car and to the fact that the traction sheave is not a freely rotating pulley but produces, at least during acceleration and braking, a factor either adding to or detracting from the rope forces resulting from the balance difference, depending on the direction of the balance difference and that of the elevator motion. A thin coating is also advantageous in that, as it is squeezed between the rope and the traction sheave, the coating can not be compressed so much that the compression would tend to evolve to the sides of the rope groove. As such compression causes lateral spreading of the material, the coating might be damaged by the great tensions produced in it. However, the coating must have a thickness sufficient to receive the rope elongations resulting from tension so that no rope slip fraying the coating occurs. At the same time, the coating has to be soft enough to allow the structural roughness of the rope, in other words, the surface wires to sink at least partially into the coating, yet hard enough to ensure that the coating will not substantially escape from under the roughness of the rope.
For steel wire ropes less than 10 mm thick, in which the surface wires are of a relatively small thickness, a coating hardness ranging from below 60 shoreA up to about 100 shoreA can be used. For ropes having surface wires thinner than in conventional elevator ropes, i.e. ropes having surface wires only about 0.2 mm thick, a preferable coating hardness is in the range of about 80 . . . 90 shoreA or even harder. A relatively hard coating can be made thin. When a rope with somewhat thicker surface wires (about 0.5 . . . 1 mm) is used, a good coating hardness is in the range of about 70 . . . 85 shoreA and a thicker coating is needed. In other words, for thinner wires a harder and thinner coating is used, and for thicker wires a softer and thicker coating is used. As the coating is firmly attached to the sheave by an adhesive bond comprising the entire area resting against the sheave, there will occur between the coating and the sheave no slippage causing wear of these. An adhesive bond may be made e.g. by vulcanizing a rubber coating onto the surface of a metallic rope sheave or by casting polyurethane or similar coating material onto a rope sheave with or without an adhesive or by applying a coating material on the rope sheave or gluing a coating element fast onto the rope sheave.
Thus, on the one hand, due to the total load or average surface pressure imposed on the coating by the rope, the coating should be hard and thin, and on the other hand, the coating should be sufficiently soft and thick to permit the rough surface structure of the rope to sink into the coating to a suitable degree to produce sufficient friction between the rope and the coating and to ensure that the rough surface structure will not pierce the coating.
A highly advantageous embodiment of the invention is the use of a coating on the traction sheave. Thus, a preferred solution is to produce an elevator in which at least the traction sheave is provided with a coating. A coating is also advantageously used on the diverting pulleys of the elevator. The coating functions as a damping layer between the metallic rope pulley and the hoisting ropes.
The coating of the traction sheave and that of a rope pulley may be differently rated so that the coating on the traction sheave is designed to accommodate a larger force difference across the sheave. The properties to be rated are thickness and material properties of the coating. Preferable coating materials are rubber and polyurethane. The coating is required to be elastic and durable, so it is possible to use other durable and elastic materials as far as they can be made strong enough to bear the surface pressure produced by the rope. The coating may be provided with reinforcements, e.g. carbon fiber or ceramic or metallic fillers, to improve its capacity to withstand internal tensions and/or the wearing or other properties of the coating surface facing the rope.
The invention provides the following advantages, among other things:
In the following, the invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings, wherein
a, 3b, 3c and 3d present different alternative structures of the coating of a rope pulley, and
The drive machine 6 placed in the elevator shaft is preferably of a flat construction, in other words, the machine has a small depth as compared with its width and/or height, or at least the machine is slim enough to be accommodated between the elevator car and a wall of the elevator shaft. The machine may also be placed differently. Especially a slim machine can be fairly easily fitted above the elevator car. The elevator shaft can be provided with equipment required for the supply of power to the motor driving the traction sheave 7 as well as equipment for elevator control, both of which can be placed in a common instrument panel 8 or mounted separately from each other or integrated partly or wholly with the drive machine 6. The drive machine may be of a geared or gearless type. A preferable solution is a gearless machine comprising a permanent magnet motor. The drive machine may be fixed to a wall of the elevator shaft, to the ceiling, to a guide rail or guide rails or to some other structure, such as a beam or frame. In the case of an elevator with machine below, a further possibility is to mount the machine on the bottom of the elevator shaft.
a, 3b, 3c, 3d illustrate alternative ways of coating a rope pulley. An easy way in respect of manufacturing technique is to provide the smooth cylindrical outer surface of a pulley as shown in
In the foregoing, the invention has been described by way of example with reference to the attached drawing while different embodiments of the invention are possible within the scope of the inventive idea defined in the claims. In the scope of the inventive idea, it is obvious that a thin rope increases the average surface pressure imposed on the rope groove if the rope tension remains unchanged. This can be easily taken into account by adapting the thickness and hardness of the coating, because a thin rope has thin surface wires, so for instance the use of a harder and/or thinner coating will not cause any problems.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20002701 | Dec 2000 | FI | national |
This application is a continuation application under 37 C.F.R. §1.53(b) of PCT International Application No. PCT/FI01/01072 filed on Dec. 7, 2001, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of Finnish Patent Application 20002701 filed Dec. 8, 2000, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/FI01/01072 | Dec 2001 | US |
Child | 10419892 | US |