Patent Application
20160176679
There are numerous emergency evacuation methods and systems conventionally practiced across various countries depending on the geographical and security conditions in the respective countries. Such emergency safety systems include lifts: modified for quick evacuation of people from a building, designing of exit ways in skyscraper buildings which facilitate shortest distance for a person to travel to exit the building, emergency alarms installed in building walls and lifts which alert an impending danger, such as fire and smoke, based on telemetric information from sensors located in the building which enable people to take quick measures to escape the building, providing cushioned basement for buildings which help top reduce the impact of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, security alert alarms which inform people in the building regarding a hostage situation and thereby constructing safe rooms within buildings to secure people, etc.
At times, evacuation is required, using emergency stairs is useless, time-consuming and impossible for the infirm. Auxiliaries and firemen also encounter difficulty in reaching upper floors of tall buildings. If firemen attend the place at vital time, they will be able to manage the crisis. Most of the alternatives which have been suggested to replace escape stairs have many shortcomings. They have considered only the process of evacuation and didn't offer any alternative for those who want to enter the building. Taking into account all the above mentioned information, many steps have been taken to integrate most of the evacuation systems, therefore focus has been concentrated on the fastest method of evacuation which points to the modification of lifts in buildings. Multiple modifications have been done in the design of lifts to make them more efficient and quick in evacuating maximum number of people in the shortest amount of time from a building.
However, even though convention designing of such evacuation methods using lifts have some disadvantages. Although all these systems are designed to increase safety, they are not immune completely. The building vibrations and the expansion and contraction of the entire system are not taken into consideration in most of the systems, and most of the systems are not designed to withstand earthquakes or bomb blasts. Almost all of the systems are designed for the outer space of buildings and are exposed to flames, consequently they will be useless and dangerous.
The process of using the present system is hazardous and there is no safe and immune way for entrance and exit because the present systems doesn't have moving platforms and conveyors which allow victims to safely enter and exit the danger spot. None of the systems define a special way which can considered for the entrance of auxiliaries and firemen without the help of external force. None of the systems detect a sensor based data which shows, for example, the amount of a poisonous gas, such as carbon monoxide which is circulating in the building since, so that the auxiliaries are able to determine their strategy for rescue operation with open eyes and prevent auxiliaries' losses. Most of the systems use independent power sources such as generators and power lines to drive the lifts which is again not completely dependable.
Hence, there is a long felt but unresolved need for an emergency entry and exit apparatus which addresses and resolves the above mentioned issues.
The emergency entry and exit apparatus for evacuating people from a building, comprises a set of four gears, mounting assemblies, a first chain and a second chain, multiple cabins, a shaft member. The gears are fixedly attached at an upper section, and another set of four gears fixedly attached at a lower section of the building via mounting assemblies, where the gears are positioned relative to each other in a single plain along the upper section and lower section of the building, and are interlocked in a loop via a first chain and a second chain in a substantially parallel orientation to each other. The cabins are positioned in series along the length of the first chain and the second chain, and a roof section of each cabin is attached to upper surfaces of the first chain and the second chain via a shaft member, where the first chain and the second chain are driven based on the difference in loading due to the weight of the people entering the cabins on opposing sides of the building which causes the cabins to be displaced along the outer contour of the building during the evacuation process, therefore allowing people to be safely transferred from one of the floors to another floor via the cabins moving in downward direction, and to allow rescue officials to enter the building through the other cabins which are moving in the upward direction.
In an embodiment, the emergency entry and exit apparatus further comprises compressed air channels positioned between adjacent to the cabins and in fluid communication with the cabins, where the compressed air channels are configured to generate a positive air pressure within each cabin and also safe room to protect the people occupied within the cabin from fire and smoke when cabin or safe room doors are opened. In an embodiment, the emergency entry and exit apparatus further comprises gearboxes to control speed of the displacement of cabins, where the cabins comprise emergency stop switches configured to stop the movement of the cabins, therefore allowing unloading of auxiliaries and moving injured people. In an embodiment, the emergency entry and exit apparatus further comprises safe rooms positioned adjacent to the emergency entry and exit apparatus, where the safe rooms are fitted with a safe doors configured to allow entry and exit of people into the emergency entry and exit apparatus, where each safe door is configured to be accessed by a person present inside the safe room. In an embodiment, each mounting assembly positioned at the lower section of the building comprises one or combination of a fixed foundation and a floating foundation gearbox. The fixed foundation is defined by vertical mounting plates configured to receive one or more of the gears, and the floating foundation gearbox is configured to receive another one or more of the gears, where the floating foundation gearbox is defined as hollow unit comprising a telescopically suspended gearbox configured to be in contact and sliding communication with the inner lining of the mounting assembly to absorb the system variation like chains elongation.
In an embodiment, the emergency entry and exit apparatus further comprises one or more oxygen cylinders positioned within each cabin to provide oxygen for the people being evacuated from the building. In an embodiment, each cabin comprises a set of doors, where each door is a sliding door defined by adjacently positioned rectangular sliding plates configured to be slid open, and the set of doors comprise a front door, a rear door, and a pair of side doors. The front door is configured to allow the entry of people, the rear door is configured to allow entry and exit for the auxiliaries, and the side doors are configured to evacuate the people at the lower section of the building. In an embodiment, a movable platform configured to allow the entry and exit of the people in to the cabins, where the height of the movable platform is configured to be adjusted with the height of the floor of the cabin electronically and moves parallel to the cabin. In an embodiment, each cabin comprises wheels positioned on adjoining edges, and bearing members, where the wheels and bearing members, in combination, is configured to prevent a pendulum movement of the cabin, and each wheel is positioned on a spring member to prevent damage caused by vibrations.
In an embodiment, the emergency entry and exit apparatus further comprises movable trapdoors positioned on a top portion and a bottom portion of each cabin, where if at the time of entering the cabin, person foot was placed between cabin and movable platform, the trapdoor moves upwards to prevent their foot from injury. In an embodiment, the height of each cabin floor and a floor in the building is different at every instance of the displacement of the cabin causing the people to enter the cabins asynchronously, thereby preventing damage to the cabin construction. In an embodiment, the emergency entry and exit apparatus further comprises weight sensors positioned within each cabin configured to automatically close the doors of the cabin when the weight of the people occupied within the cabin reaches a maximum safety value. In an embodiment, monitoring and telemetry systems are positioned in each safe room configured to assist rescue officials to collect data regarding the extent of damage within the building, such as, but not limited to temperature, smoke, etc., and thereby to administer and determine their situation when leaving the safe room. When auxiliaries arrives to the considered floor and step-down from the apparatus, they enter an small room which is inside the safe room to avoid them from crowd and helps them to step-down from apparatus without interfering with other people. This room's door can be opened only by firemen from inside.
In an embodiment, the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 further comprises compressed air channels 110 positioned between adjacent to the cabins 105 and in fluid communication with the cabins 105, where the compressed air channels 110 are configured to generate a positive air pressure within each cabin 105 to protect the people occupied within the cabin 105 from fire and smoke when cabin doors 121 are opened as shown in
As shown in
One of the prominent features of the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 is obtaining its required energy by converting potential energy of people's weight into kinetic energy and using the raised surplus of the energy to rotate the generators which supply cabins' 105 light, and the required energy for actuating the air compressors which supply air through the compressed air channels 110 and moveable platforms 117. In order to resist earthquake and to control expansion and contraction, the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 is connected to a floating foundation. The lower gears 101 proximal to the lower section 108b of the building 108 are connected to two floating gearboxes from two sides, the gearboxes are in two housings, placed on steel wheels and move up and down as shown in
The collection of gears 101 and gearboxes cause elongation of the chains 103 and 104 and in case of a change in the length of the chains 103 and 104 they, with their permanent expansion and contraction, put it under pressure and act as a tightener for the chains 103 and 104. The aforementioned procedure makes the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 to move freely but under control. Therefore, at the time of earthquake occurrence, the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 is stable and usable. In an example, it must be mentioned that the floating foundation of the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 finds application in construction industry and bridge construction industry specially in constructing hanging bridges in order to control earthquake shaking and the expansion and contraction of tensile cables to which the bridge deck is connected. In another example, considering the evacuation rate of the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100, with simultaneous use of four systems or the four pathways for the movement of the cabins 105, a building 108 with a population of 4,800 people, with a height of 300 meters will be evacuated completely within 30 minutes.
There are two moveable trapdoors 113a and 113b at the bottom 105b and top 105a of the cabin 105 which ease the process of entrance, which prevent damage to people's feet as entering the cabin 105. It means that if a man's foot, at the time of entering the cabin 105, is placed at the bottom of the cabin 105, the moveable trapdoor 113b moves upwards and the injured can safely enter the cabin 105, as shown in
Conventionally, at the time of the fire, the ventilation system causes more smoke to enter the rooms. But in the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100, instead of using ventilator, there is an air handling unit at zero height of the building 108 which makes positive pressure in safe rooms 112 by the compressed air channels 110 passing through the two systems. High air volume and pressure of the safe room 112 prevent smokes and flames to enter the room 300 at the time the door is opened as shown in
In an embodiment, the height of each cabin floor 105c and a floor in the building 108 is different at every instance of the displacement of the cabin 105 causing the people to enter the cabins 105 asynchronously, thereby preventing damage to the cabin 105 construction. The evacuation time can be increased by making the cabins 105 distance more than four meters at the bottom of the cabin 105, adding four more gears, and L-like moving of the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100. The generators of the present system have the ability to turn into motors. So, if the number of firemen who want to go upward is more than the number of people going downward, the electricity which has been stored in the batteries is used to run the system. There is a small generator connected to one of the wheels of the cabin 105. By the use of the friction between the wheel and its runner, lighting can be provided in the cabin 105 and the emergency battery of it can be charged. There is a shaft in the gearbox of the present system that can be connected to the external motor and run it. If there is a need for system movement and there is no one in the building 108 to come down, this shaft is of great help. The safe rooms 112 have door and staircase walls to connect the floors 109 together so that people can move between floors 109, if necessary. All of the dimensions and amounts have been proposed and are changeable. Cabins 105 with different capacity and different rate may be used.
In the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100, the number of the runners can be reduced from four to two. The emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 can be replace the escape stairs in tall buildings and have two distinct pathways to transfer auxiliaries upward and the injured downward, and will never be blocked. The emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 can transfer people who are trapped in the top of the building 108 downward and simultaneously transfer the auxiliaries upward without the use of electricity, Fossil fuel, or any kind of motors. The emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 has anti-fire and anti-smoke cabins 105 to help people exit from the building fire. In an embodiment, the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 further comprises weight sensors positioned within each cabin 105 configured to automatically close the doors of the cabin 105 when the weight of the people occupied within the cabin 105 reaches a maximum safety value. The floating foundation used in the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 works by the help of gravity and at earthquakes it remains stable and makes the rigid structure flexible. The foundation developed for the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 is a floating one which controls the change in chains length at the time of expansion and contraction.
The emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 is able to produce electricity by the use of people's weight and conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy, and has no pollution and supplies its need for lightening the cabins 105, launching air compressors and charging all batteries. In the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100, it is possible for the firemen and the auxiliaries to reach the top floor 109 of the building 108 in the shortest possible time and without encountering other people. They can also leave the building fast and easily. The emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 is placed in a safe, fire-proof room, and the compressed air which is injected through the compressed air channels 110 make a positive pressure in the room 300 that protects the injured and prevents the spread of fire and smoke into the room 300 as the door is opened. Up and down moving platforms 117 of the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100 increases the time for entering the cabin 105 and returns the moving platforms 117 to the initial state as the cabin 105 passes the floor 109.
At the evacuation place, the cabin 105 moves, for example, about 4 meters horizontally to give people the chance to leave the cabin 105 and step easily on the movable platform 124 at the rate of which is, for example, 0.5 m/s. The movable platform 124 moves parallel to the cabin 105 and as the floating foundation gearbox 119 moves up or down, it uses an electronic eye to set its height with the cabin floor 105c. Where the cabin 105 changes its horizontal movement to vertical, on the top portion and bottom portion with respect to the emergency entry and exit apparatus 100, there is a curved part that helps it to enter the runner.
The foregoing examples have been provided merely for the purpose of explanation and are in no way to be construed as limiting of the present concept disclosed herein. While the concept has been described with reference to various embodiments, it is understood that the words, which have been used herein, are words of description and illustration, rather than words of limitation. Further, although the concept has been described herein with reference to particular means, materials, and embodiments, the concept is not intended to be limited to the particulars disclosed herein; rather, the concept extends to all functionally equivalent structures, methods and uses, such as are within the scope of the appended claims. Those skilled in the art, having the benefit of the teachings of this specification, may affect numerous modifications thereto and changes may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the concept in its aspects.
