Patent Application
20180170711
The present invention relates to an elevator apparatus including an unintended car movement protection device configured to prevent running of a car with door open.
In a related-art elevator system, a car velocity, an amount of movement of a car, and a floor reference position are detected by a detection device. A safety controller compares a result of detection by the detection device to an abnormality determination threshold value of the car velocity, which is set for a position of the car, to determine occurrence of an open-door running abnormality. Further, the safety controller calculates a landing reference position for landing of the car and a distance for determination from the landing reference position to the car position. The abnormality determination threshold value is set so as to decrease as the distance for determination increases. Further, the abnormality determination threshold value is set based on the car position and a deceleration for stopping the car at a predetermined position (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
Further, in a related-art elevator apparatus, a braking capability check mode for checking a braking capability of a brake device under a state in which no passenger is present in the car is included in operation modes of an elevator control device. In the braking capability check mode, the car which is currently running at a rated velocity is brought to an emergency stop by the brake device so that a deceleration of the car and a braking distance are measured (see, for example, Patent Literature 2).
Further, a related-art characteristic evaluation device for an elevator brake automatically evaluates characteristics of the brake based on a running distance of the car over an interval between time points at each of which a derivative of the car velocity changes when the car is forcibly stopped, and transmits a result of the evaluation to a monitoring center (see, for example, Patent Literature 3).
Still further, in a related-art safety system for an elevator, detection plates are provided at specific positions in a hoistway. The car is provided with a car-position sensor configured to detect the detection plates. Distance information indicating the specific positions at which the detection plates are provided and an interval therebetween is stored in a database. A safety controller detects, based on an output from the car-position sensor, that the car position matches with the specific position. Further, the safety controller calculates the car velocity for each interval from elapsed time for each interval and the distance information, and compares the car velocity to an excessively large velocity determination curve (see, for example, Patent Literature 4).
[PTL 1] JP 2014-139106 A
[PTL 2] JP 2011-42480 A
[PTL 3] JP 8-310759 A
[PTL 4] JP 2014-51344 A
When it is determined that the braking capability of the brake device has decreased to such a level that functions of an unintended car movement protection device are not sufficiently fulfilled, the related-art elevator apparatus stops an operation of the car until the braking capability is restored to a proper level. Thus, serviceability of the elevator apparatus decreases.
The present invention has been made to solve the problem described above, and has an object to provide an elevator apparatus capable of reducing the number of stops of an operation of a car due to a decrease in braking capability of a brake device as much as possible to prevent a decrease in serviceability.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an elevator apparatus, including: a car; a brake device configured to brake running of the car; and an unintended car movement protection device in which an allowable zone being a zone for allowing movement of the car in a door-open state is set, the unintended car movement protection device being configured to stop the car by the brake device when the car moves out of the allowable zone under the door-open state, the unintended car movement protection device being capable of changing a range of the allowable zone in accordance with a braking capability of the brake device.
Further, according to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an elevator apparatus, including: a car; a brake device configured to brake running of the car; and an unintended car movement protection device configured to stop the car by the brake device when a car velocity becomes equal to or higher than a monitoring reference velocity under a state in which the car is in a door-open state, the unintended car movement protection device being capable of changing the monitoring reference velocity in accordance with the braking capability of the brake device.
In the elevator apparatus according to the present invention, the range of the allowable zone set for the unintended car movement protection device can be changed in accordance with the braking capability of the brake device. Thus, when the braking capability of the brake device decreases, the range of the allowable zone is narrowed. As a result, the number of stops of the operation of the car due to the decrease in braking capability of the brake device is reduced as much as possible, and hence the decrease in serviceability can be prevented.
Further, the elevator apparatus according to the present invention, the monitoring reference velocity set for the unintended car movement protection device can be changed in accordance with the braking capability of the brake device. Thus, when the braking capability of the brake device decreases, the monitoring reference velocity is reduced. As a result, the number of stops of the operation of the car due to the decrease in braking capability of the brake device is reduced as much as possible, and hence the decrease in serviceability can be prevented.
Now, embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the drawings.
In the upper part of the hoistway 1, a deflector sheave 5 is installed at a distance from the driving sheave 3. A suspending body 6 is wound around the driving sheave 3 and the deflector sheave 5. As the suspending body 6, a plurality of ropes or a plurality of belts are used.
A car 7 is connected to a first end portion of the suspending body 6. A counterweight 8 is connected to a second end portion of the suspending body 6. The car 7 and the counterweight 8 are suspended by the suspending body 6 inside the hoistway 1, and are raised and lowered inside the hoistway 1 by rotating the driving sheave 3. The brake devices 4a and 4b brake running of the car 7 by braking the rotation of the driving sheave 3.
On a front surface of the car 7, a car-door device 9 configured to open and close a car doorway is mounted. A landing-door device 10 configured to open and close a landing doorway is provided to a landing of each of a plurality of stop floors. Inside the hoistway 1, a plurality of detection members 11 are installed. In
The releveling zone is set to a range smaller than a door zone being a region in which door opening is allowed. Inside the hoistway, a plurality of landing plates (not shown) corresponding to the door zone are installed.
In the upper part of the hoistway 1, a speed governor 13 is installed. The speed governor 13 includes a speed-governor sheave 14. A speed-governor rope 15 is wound around the speed-governor sheave 14. The speed-governor rope 15 is laid in an annular manner inside the hoistway 1, and is connected to the car 7. Further, the speed-governor rope 15 is wound around a tension sheave 16 arranged in a lower part of the hoistway 1.
The speed-governor sheave 14 is rotated along with the raising and lowering of the car 7. Specifically, when the car 7 is raised and lowered, the speed-governor rope 15 is moved in a circulating manner to rotate the speed-governor sheave 14 at a rotation speed in accordance with a running velocity of the car 7.
The speed-governor sheave 14 is provided with a car-position detection device 17 configured to generate a signal in accordance with the movement of the car 7. As the car-position detection device 17, for example, an encoder or a resolver, which generates a signal in accordance with the rotation of the speed-governor sheave 14, is used.
An operation of the car 7 is controlled by an elevator control device 18. The elevator control device 18 detects a position and a car velocity of the car 7 from a signal output from the car-position detection device 17 or other detection devices (for example, an encoder or a resolver configured to detect the rotation of the driving sheave 3).
Further, the elevator control device 18 performs a releveling operation when a door-open state is achieved after the car 7 lands on the stop floor. The elevator control device 18 corrects a vertical displacement of a car floor, which is caused by boarding and exiting of a passenger, to set the car floor back to a leveled position through the releveling operation.
Signals from the zone detection device 12 and the car-position detection device 17 are transmitted to an unintended car movement protection device (UCMP device) 19. In the unintended car movement protection device 19, an allowable zone being a zone for allowing the movement of the car 7 even under the door-open state is set. In this example, a releveling zone is set as the allowable zone.
When the car 7 moves out of the releveling zone being the allowable zone during a period in which the releveling operation for the car 7 is performed under the door-open state, the unintended car movement protection device 19 shuts off a power of the traction machine 2 by a relay or the like so that the car 7 is stopped by the brake devices 4a and 4b.
Further, when the car velocity becomes equal to or higher than a monitoring reference velocity during the period in which the releveling operation for the car 7 is performed under the door-open state, the unintended car movement protection device 19 shuts off the power of the traction machine 2 by a relay or the like so that the car 7 is stopped by the brake devices 4a and 4b.
Operation modes of the elevator control device 18 for the car 7 include a brake inspection mode. In the brake inspection mode, the elevator control device 18 inspects a braking capability (brake torque) of the brake devices 4a and 4b under a state in which no passenger is present in the car 7. Specifically, the elevator control device 18 of the first embodiment also serves as a brake inspection device.
In the brake inspection mode, as illustrated in
Further, after automatically inspecting the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b at set timing and detecting a decrease in braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b, the elevator control device 18 automatically issues an alarm to a remote monitoring device 20 of a maintenance engineer.
Further, the elevator control device 18 transmits information relating to the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b to the unintended car movement protection device 19. The elevator control device 18 and the unintended car movement protection device 19 include independent computers, respectively, and are mutually communicable with each other.
The unintended car movement protection device 19 can change the range of the releveling zone in accordance with the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b. In the unintended car movement protection device 19, a first range R1 illustrated in
The unintended car movement protection device 19 sets the range of the releveling zone to the first range R1 when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b is equal to or larger than a preset threshold value, and changes the range of the releveling zone to the second range R2 when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b becomes smaller than the threshold value. Specifically, a value of an inspection result indicating the braking capability, for example, the inspection braking distance is compared to the threshold value. In this case, however, the value of the inspection result is referred to as “braking capability” for simplification.
Further, after the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b becomes equal to or larger than the threshold value again, the unintended car movement protection device 19 sets the range of the releveling zone from the second range R2 back to the first range R1.
In the elevator apparatus described above, the range of the releveling zone set for the unintended car movement protection device 19 can be changed in accordance with the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b. Therefore, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b decreases, the range of the releveling zone can be narrowed.
In this manner, even when open-door running occurs under a state in which the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b decreases by some degrees, the car 7 can be stopped within the allowable range. Therefore, the number of stops of the operation of the car 7 due to the decrease in braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b can be reduced as much as possible, and hence a decrease in serviceability can be prevented.
Meanwhile, the range of the releveling zone is narrowed in accordance with the decrease in braking capability as in the first embodiment. As a result, the open-door running can be determined in an early stage so as to activate the brake devices 4a and 4b at early time. Therefore, even in a case where the braking distance is increased, an overlap between the car doorway and the landing doorway at a time when the car 7 is stopped can be sufficiently ensured.
Further, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b is equal to or larger than the threshold value, the range of the releveling zone is set to the first range R1. When the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b becomes smaller than the threshold value, the range of the releveling zone is changed to the second range R2. Therefore, the number of stops of the operation of the car 7 due to the decrease in braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b can be reduced as much as possible by simple control.
Further, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b becomes equal to or larger than the threshold value again, the range of the releveling zone is set from the second range R2 back to the first range R1. Therefore, after the braking capability is restored to a normal level through adjustment or replacement of the brake devices 4a and 4b, a normal service can be smoothly restarted.
Still further, after the inspection of the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b is automatically carried out at the set timing and the decrease in braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b is detected, an alarm is automatically issued to the monitoring device of the maintenance engineer. Therefore, a maintenance plan for the brake devices 4a and 4b can be built at early time or can be shortened.
Although the unintended car movement protection device 19 receives the information relating to the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b from the elevator control device 18 to automatically change the range of the releveling zone in the first embodiment, the range of the releveling zone may be switched manually.
Further, although only one threshold value is set for the braking capability in the first embodiment, two or more threshold values and three or more ranges of the releveling zone may be set so that the range of the releveling zone is narrowed in a stepwise manner in accordance with the degree of decrease in braking capability.
Further, although the threshold value is set for the braking capability so that the range of the releveling zone is changed in a stepwise manner in the first embodiment, the range of the releveling zone can be changed continuously in a stepless manner in accordance with the braking capability.
Still further, in a case where the releveling zone is detected by using the detection members, for example, the detection member corresponding to the changed releveling zone is additionally provided. As a result, two or more releveling zones having different ranges can be detected. Further, the changed releveling zone can also be detected based on a combination of the signal from the zone detection device 12 and the signal from the car-position detection device 17.
Further, the unintended car movement protection device may detect the releveling zone based on a combination of a signal from an absolute-position detection device (for example, a switch which is operated by the movement of the car) configured to detect an absolute position inside the hoistway and a signal from a movement-amount detection device (for example, the car-position detection device 17) configured to generate a signal in accordance with the movement of the car without using the detection members 11.
Further, although the releveling zone is used as the allowable zone in the first embodiment, the present invention is also applicable to an elevator apparatus which does not perform the releveling operation. In this case, the allowable zone only needs to be suitably set to extend above and below the landing position on the stop floor.
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention is described. An overall configuration of an elevator apparatus of the second embodiment is identical or similar to that of the first embodiment (
In the unintended car movement protection device 19, a first monitoring reference velocity V1 shown in
The unintended car movement protection device 19 sets the monitoring reference velocity to the first monitoring reference velocity V1 when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b is equal to or larger than the preset threshold value, and changes the monitoring reference velocity to the second monitoring reference velocity V2 when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b becomes smaller than the threshold value. Further, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b decreases to be smaller than the threshold value, the unintended car movement protection device 19 outputs a command to decrease the car velocity during the releveling operation to the elevator control device 18.
Further, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b becomes equal to or larger than the threshold value again, the unintended car movement protection device 19 sets the monitoring reference velocity from the second monitoring reference velocity V2 back to the first monitoring reference velocity V1. Further, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b becomes equal to or larger than the threshold value again, the unintended car movement protection device 19 outputs a command to set the car velocity during the releveling operation back to the velocity before change to the elevator control device 18. The remaining configuration and operation are identical or similar to those of the first embodiment.
In the elevator apparatus described above, the monitoring reference velocity in the unintended car movement protection device 19 can be changed in accordance with the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b. Thus, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b decreases, the monitoring reference velocity can be decreased.
In this manner, even when the door-opening running occurs under a state in which the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b decreases to some extent, the car 7 can be stopped within the allowable range. Therefore, the number of stops of the operation of the car 7 due to the decrease in braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b is reduced as much as possible, and hence the decrease in serviceability can be prevented.
Further, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b is equal to or larger than the threshold value, the monitoring reference velocity is set to the first monitoring reference velocity V1. When the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b becomes smaller than the threshold value, the monitoring reference velocity is changed to the second monitoring reference velocity V2. Thus, the number of stops of the operation of the car 7 due to the decrease in braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b can be reduced as much as possible by simple control.
Further, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b becomes equal to or larger than the threshold value again, the monitoring reference velocity is set from the second monitoring reference velocity V2 back to the first monitoring reference velocity V1. Thus, after the braking capability is restored to the normal level through the adjustment or replacement of the brake devices 4a and 4b, the normal service can be smoothly restarted.
Still further, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b decreases, the command to decrease the car velocity during the releveling operation is output to the elevator control device 18. Thus, even when the open-door running occurs under the state in which the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b decreases, the car 7 can be more reliably stopped. Further, in a case where the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b decreases, the monitoring reference velocity can be set sufficiently low.
Further, when the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b is restored to be equal to or larger than the threshold value, the command to set the car velocity during the releveling operation back to the velocity before change is output to the elevator control device 18. Thus, after the braking capability is restored to the normal level, time of the releveling operation can be shortened.
Although the unintended car movement protection device 19 receives the information relating to the braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b from the elevator control device 18 to automatically change the monitoring reference velocity in the second embodiment, the range of the monitoring reference velocity can be switched manually.
Further, although only one threshold value is set for the braking capability in the second embodiment, two or more threshold values and three or more monitoring reference velocities may be set so that the monitoring reference velocity may be decreased in a stepwise manner in accordance with the degree of decrease in braking capability.
Further, although the threshold value is set for the braking capability and the monitoring reference velocity is changed in a stepwise manner in the second embodiment, the monitoring reference velocity can be continuously changed in a stepless manner in accordance with the braking capability.
Still further, the releveling zone is used as the allowable zone in the second embodiment, the present invention is also applicable to an elevator apparatus which does not perform the releveling operation.
Further, the first embodiment and the second embodiment may be carried out in combination. Specifically, the range of the releveling zone and the monitoring reference velocity may be both changed in accordance with the decrease in braking capability of the brake devices 4a and 4b.
Further, for the threshold value in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, the inspection braking distance which is detected at the time of inspection with the braking capability to achieve the braking distance allowed by the unintended car movement protection device is prestored so as to be available as a threshold value for a subsequent inspection.
Still further, although the inspection of the braking capability of the brake devices is automatically carried out in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, a command may be input manually to carry out the inspection.
Although the two brake devices 4a and 4b are used in the above-mentioned example, the number of brake devices may be one or three or more.
Further, although the brake devices 4a and 4b provided to the traction machine 2 are described as the brake devices which are operated in response to the command from the unintended car movement protection device 19 in the example described above, a brake device arranged at another location such as, for example, a brake device configured to grip the suspending body 6 may be used.
Still further, although the elevator control device 18 also serves as the brake inspection device in the example described above, the brake inspection device may be independent of the elevator control device 18.
Further, although the unintended car movement protection device 19 is independent of the elevator control device 18 in the example described above, the two devices may be integrated with each other so that functions of the two devices may be implemented by a common computer.
Further, although the car-position detection device 17 is provided to the speed governor 13 in the example described above, the car-position detection device may be, for example, the encoder or the resolver, which is provided to the traction machine.
Still further, a layout of the entire elevator apparatus is not limited to a layout illustrated in
Further, the present invention is applicable to all types of elevator apparatus including an elevator apparatus having a machine room, a machine room-less elevator, a double-deck elevator, and a one-shaft multi-car system elevator including a plurality of cars arranged in a common hoistway.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2015/073601 | 8/21/2015 | WO | 00 |
