Patent Grant
12037219
This application is a national stage application, filed under 35 U.S.C. § 371, of International Application No. PCT/IB2022/053949, filed Apr. 28, 2022, which claims priority to India Application No. 202141040551, filed Sep. 7, 2021, the contents of both of which as are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The present invention generally belongs to the field of elevators, specifically to the field of construction of elevator doors and cars and more specifically relates to the field of sheet metal base panels used in elevator doors and cars. The present invention relates to a sheet metal base panel for use in elevators, the said novel feature making the panels cost effective by reducing the thickness requirement of the sheet metal without compromising on the structural integrity of the panels.
In the elevator industry, base panels made of sheet metals are commonly used in landing doors, car doors and the car itself.
Conventionally, elevator doors (landing doors and car doors) are made up of the following components—a bottom header, a top header, a base panel and stiffener. The base panels are always made of sheet metal of uniform thickness throughout the panel. The thickness of the sheet metal is decided based on the strength needed at the weakest point of the panel when subjected to mechanical tests as specified by the standards. Thus the default thickness of the sheet at the weakest point becomes the thickness of the entire panel. Usually, such elevator door or car panels have base panel thickness of 0.8 mm and above. The elevator cars, also called cabins, are constructed with a steel framework for durability and strength, and are made up of a ceiling, platform and base panels. The sides of the elevator cars are also usually made from steel sheet and are trimmed on the inside with paneling. In elevator cars, the base panels connect the ceiling and the platform.
Therefore, there is extensive use of base panels in the elevator industry. However, with rise in sheet metal prices, there is a need to provide base panels which would reduce the costs involved in manufacture of elevators without compromising on the structural integrity of the base panels.
Chinese Patent Application CN201811591042A discloses an integrated elevator door panel structure wherein the left and right ends of the panel body are respectively provided with left and right flanges. The upper and lower ends of the panel are respectively provided with upper and lower flanges. The inner side wall of the hemming is provided with curling, the inner side of the curling is provided with a connecting piece, and the bottom of the connecting piece is provided with a guide shoe under the lower hemming; there is an installation cavity, and the installation cavity is provided with reinforcing ribs fixed on the surface of the board. The said patent document claims that such panel structure has the characteristics of being able to effectively increase the production efficiency and improve the overall strength of the door panel.
Chinese Patent Application CN201620607387U discloses a one-piece bending type elevator door which includes a door panel main body, an upper head, a lower head, and a door slider mounted on the said lower head. In the main body of the said elevator door, the sides (left and right sides) are bent in an inverted U-shape to form a package structure. The U-shaped inverted portion of the door panel body is bent to form the upper head and the lower side is formed in a stepped inversion to form the lower head, and the stepped portion includes at least one vertical surface, the said door slider being mounted on the said vertical surface. The stepped shape described in this example is a secondary step shape comprising a first stage step connected directly to the door panel body and a second stage step connected to the first stage step end, the door slider being mounted on the vertical plane of the first step. The patent document discloses that the said door is made of one-piece moulding, thereby reducing the door production process and making the process simple and easy to achieve and also reduces the cost of the elevator car door.
Chinese Patent Application CN201520720563U discloses an elevator door with a new integrated structure, including a main door with a door body which includes a side folding on the left and right sides, an upper and a lower hemming, wherein the lower hem is provided with mounting holes for mounting a door slide, the said lower hem also folded edge wise through a first and second bending edge, and a bending on the third side and fourth side, thereby forming four stepped off side, wherein the lower end of the vertical flanges of the rim includes a lower hem with a vertical mounting plate, wherein the vertical mounting plate is bent through the first side and the second side of the bend is bent twice in L-shaped manner, the vertical position corresponding to the lower hem of the mounting plate. The mounting hole is located in the vertical mounting plate, wherein the first folded edge and second folded edge between the first and three folding edges, grooves are formed for installation of slider between the edges of the fourth bend. The said novel feature, especially of the lower hem through elevator door plant lower part which adopts the quartic bending, is proposed to not only reduce the manufacturing procedure of the door plant, but has also guaranteed the rigidity of the door plant and claimed to make the installation of the door slider convenient.
Document EP 2008958 A1 discloses a doorway of an elevator that is opened/closed by a door for the elevator. The door for the elevator has a panel member and a back member provided on a back side of the panel member. The panel member and the back member are continuous with each other at each end of a door panel in a width direction thereof. The panel member and the back member are continuous with each other in a region that is formed by bending a board. The back member has a back-side superposition portion superposed on a back surface of the panel member. Thus, the door panel can be manufactured with ease simply by bending the board. A strength of the door panel can be ensured as well through reinforcement resulting from the bending of the board and reinforcement due to the back member. In addition, even in a case where, for example, one hand of a passenger is inserted into a back side of the door panel, the passenger can be prevented from having this hand cut by the door panel.
Document CN 107840229 A discloses a sheet metal base panel according to the preamble of claim 1.
However, the above said inventions do not completely address the problems in the prior art, particularly, they do not provide an effective mechanism to reduce the thickness requirement of the sheet metal base panels used in elevator landing & car doors and the cars itself, without compromising on the structural integrity of the said panels. The patents disclosed in the prior art documents are also not installation friendly as the holes to fix the base panel are not symmetrical. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a sheet metal base panel for use in elevators which is cost friendly as well as installation & assembly friendly.
The information disclosed in this background of disclosure section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.
Further it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the objects of this invention have been achieved by providing a sheet metal base panel for use in elevators, which is unique in nature unlike existing systems or the ones described in the above prior art in the field known to the inventors. Various changes may be made in and without departing from the concept of the invention. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiment as a basis for designing and modifying other methods and structures for carrying out the same purpose of the present invention. Further, features of some stages disclosed in this application may be employed with features of other stages. Therefore, the scope of the invention is to be determined by the terminology of the following claims and the legal equivalents thereof.
One or more problems of the conventional prior art may be overcome by various embodiments of the present invention.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a sheet metal base panel for use in elevators which makes the manufacturing of elevators cost effective when compared to existing sheet metal base panels.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sheet metal base panel for use in elevators wherein the thickness of the said panels is the lowest possible while at the same time the structural integrity of the said panels are not compromised.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a sheet metal base panel for use in elevators wherein the said panels are easy to install and assemble.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a sheet metal base panel for use in elevators wherein the improved structure does not affect the aesthetics of the elevators doors and cars.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process of manufacturing a sheet metal base panel for use in elevators.
These and other objects and advantages of the present subject matter will be apparent to a person skilled in the art after consideration of the following detailed description taken into consideration with accompanying drawings in which the preferred embodiment of the present subject matter are illustrated.
The following disclosure presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify the key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concept of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description of the invention presented later.
The present invention embodies a sheet metal base panel for use in elevators, the said sheet metal base panel comprising of:
The present invention further provides a process of manufacturing the sheet metal base panels for use in elevators, the said process comprising the steps of:
The various advantages of the present invention include:
The advantages and features of the present invention will be more readily apparent by persons skilled in the art when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings listed below.
The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context of particular applications of the invention and their requirements. The present invention can be configured as follows:
Construction
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the stiffeners (2) are arranged in the shape of a cross on the rear side of the said main body (1), thereby strengthening the mid-section of the base panel.
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the thickness of the stiffeners (2) is more than the thickness of the base panel, contrary to the arrangement in existing elevators.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the sheet metal base panel disclosed herein is used in the landing door of an elevator.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the sheet metal base panel disclosed herein is used in the car door of an elevator.
In an embodiment of the present invention wherein the sheet metal base panel disclosed herein is used in the car door or landing door of an elevator, the said door is of the centre opening type.
In another embodiment of the present invention wherein the sheet metal base panel disclosed herein is used in the car door or landing door of an elevator, the said door is of the telescopic opening type.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the sheet metal base panel disclosed herein is used in the cabin/car panel of an elevator.
In an embodiment of the present invention wherein the sheet metal base panel disclosed herein is used in the landing door of an elevator, as shown in
The above mentioned specific embodiments are provided herein for illustrative purposes only. A person skilled in the art would be able to reproduce and/or apply the said construction in various other ways not expressly mentioned herein, for example, by employing the sheet metal base panel disclosed herein as cabin/car panels. Such constructions will be within the spirit and scope of the present patent specification.
Working
It is a well established practice known to any person reasonably skilled in the art that the base panels are always made of sheet metal of uniform thickness throughout the panel. The thickness of the sheet metal is decided based on the strength needed at the weakest point of the panel when subjected to mechanical tests as specified by the standards. Thus the default thickness of the sheet at the weakest point becomes the thickness of the entire panel. Usually, elevator door/car panels have base panel thickness of 0.8 mm and above.
The novel and inventive structure disclosed by the present invention strengthens the weakest parts of the panels through a process called hemming. This allows the weakest parts of the panel to have a higher thickness while the rest of the panel would be having half the thickness. Therefore, this novel and inventive aspect disclosed by the present invention allows the use of very thin metal sheets whose thickness range from 0.5 mm to 0.7 mm to manufacture sheet metal based component for elevators. This unique aspect thus brings a significant reduction in costs while complying with the structural strengths specified for the sheet metal components used in elevators.
The two longitudinal sides of the base panel disclosed by the present invention act as the top and bottom header and therefore there is no requirement for separately attaching a top and bottom header like in conventional base panels.
The novel feature disclosed by the present invention allows for use of sheet metal of thickness as low as ≥0.5 mm to ≤0.7 mm in base panel. The improvement in the existing structure is due to the use of the 180° hemming process across all the open edges of the sides of the base panel. Since the edges are the ones that bear the maximum load in the door, such hemming arrangement ensures a double wall thickness of cross sectional in the edges although the thickness of the sheet metal is only ≥0.5 mm to ≤0.7 mm. Such hemming is found on all four sides of the base panel. The selective strengthening of the weak points i.e., the edges of the base panel, is the reason that a sheet metal of ≥0.5 mm to ≤0.7 mm thickness can be used as input for construction. Since the centre of the door panel only has ≥0.5 mm to ≤0.7 mm thickness, stiffeners of 0.8 mm thickness are used to add structural support to the centre to resist deflection during mechanical tests.
Using the hemming process, it is possible to assimilate the bottom and upper header components into the construction of the base panel to create a unit component comprising of three components. The structure of the elevator base panel preserves the functionality of the base panel, incorporates the functionality of the upper and bottom header in the same base panel while increasing the strength by 10%. Conventionally 3 different sheets of metal thickness were employed to create the door panel—upper and bottom header, base panel, stiffeners. The thickness of sheet metals used for the headers and the base panels used differ varyingly. The present invention utilizes only one sheet of metal of only one thickness to create a unit component that serves as the base panel, upper header and bottom header.
The present invention achieves the objects set out in the specification hereinabove by creatively engineering the structure of the elevator sheet metal base panels used in landing door, car door and the car itself. The uniqueness of the base panel structure disclosed by the present invention lies in the following features:
A mechanical test was performed on the sheet metal base panels disclosed herein according to IS 14665 (Part 4_Sec 6). The following were the dimensions of the tested samples:
Two samples of the following description were tested:
According to IS 14665 (Part 4_Sec 6), 345N forces perpendicular to 5 cm2 area were applied with a dial gauge with plunger (deformation measurement tool).
The test criteria are that there should be no plastic deformation and the test should not result in the doors being sprung from their guides.
The following test results were obtained:
Therefore, the novel and inventive structure disclosed by the present invention to improve sheet metal base panels have been shown to pass the mechanical requirements of IS 14665 (Part 4_Sec 6).
While there has been shown and described what is considered to be preferred embodiments of the invention, it will, of course, be understood that various modifications and changes in form or detail could readily be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is therefore intended that the invention be not limited to the exact forms described and illustrated, but should be constructed to cover all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.
Further embodiments may also be obtained by combining two or more dependent claims.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the objects of this invention have been achieved by providing the above invention. However various changes may be made in the structure of the invention without departing from the concept of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention is to be determined by the terminology of the following claims and the legal equivalents thereof
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202141040551 | Sep 2021 | IN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2022/053949 | 4/28/2022 | WO |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2023/037171 | 3/16/2023 | WO | A |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 205061300 | Mar 2016 | CN |
| 205873639 | Jan 2017 | CN |
| 107840229 | Mar 2018 | CN |
| 109455608 | Mar 2019 | CN |
| 209337932 | Sep 2019 | CN |
| 113148817 | Jul 2021 | CN |
| 2008958 | Dec 2008 | EP |
| 2241939 | Nov 2005 | ES |
| WO-9940017 | Aug 1999 | WO |
| WO-2018011921 | Jan 2018 | WO |
| WO-2018020065 | Feb 2018 | WO |
| Entry |
|---|
| Machine Translation of EP 1403204. |
| International Search Report and Written Opinion for PCT/IB2022/053949 (ISA/EP) mailed Aug. 5, 2022 (10 pages). |
| International Preliminary Report on Patentability for PCT/IB2022/053949 (IPEA/EP) dated Mar. 16, 2023 (24 pages). |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20230399200 A1 | Dec 2023 | US |
