Elevator – industrial lift truck – or stationary lift for vehicle – With call registration means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-25
2002-01-01
Salata, Jonathan (Department: 2837)
Elevator, industrial lift truck, or stationary lift for vehicle
With call registration means
C187S902000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06334511
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elevator in which a plurality of cars are installed on a car frame.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, buildings are increasingly becoming higher, and there has been a demand for mass transport by elevators.
In order to enhance carrying capacities by using regular elevators, it is required to increase dimensions of cars and hoistways. This is difficult, however, because effective use of limited spaces in buildings is required, and there are many restrictions, such as soaring land prices.
To overcome such difficulties, there has been proposed a double-deck elevator having a two-story car. In this double-deck elevator, two cars are vertically arranged in one hoistway so as to land the two cars on two floors at the same time to substantially double carrying capacity of the elevator per hoistway.
FIGS. 8
,
9
, and
10
show a construction and an operation of a conventional double-deck elevator control system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
4-72288.
Referring to
FIG. 8
, in the conventional double-deck elevator, an upper car and a lower car respectively having independent functions are installed on an integral car frame
1
.
The upper car
8
is installed via a vibration-proof rubber component
7
on a car holding beam
5
on a separating beam
3
of the car frame
1
. Two hydraulic jacks
10
are located between a lower beam
4
and a car holding beam
6
provided on a top of the car, then a lower car
9
is disposed on the car holding beam
6
via another vibration-proof rubber component
7
.
Guiding devices
11
engaging upright beam
2
are installed on both sides of the top of the lower car
9
. A shock absorber
12
is provided between a ceiling of the lower car and a bottom surface of the separating beam
3
.
A potentiometer
13
is provided on a plunger side of the hydraulic jack to measure an operating stroke of the plunger (relative position of the lower car
9
with respect to the car frame
1
).
A car interval adjuster
15
is connected to an elevator operation controller
14
. Distances between individual floors of a building are read and stored beforehand, as data, in a microcomputer of the car interval adjuster
15
.
To land at a floor in response to a call in a building that does not have uniform intervals between floors, a jack operation pattern for adjusting a distance between the upper and lower cars to a distance between floors before the cars are landed is set. The jack operation pattern is based on data regarding a distance between landing floors that has been stored in a memory of the microcomputer of the car interval adjuster
15
.
Based on the foregoing set pattern, a hydraulic jack actuation command is issued from a microcomputer to actuate the hydraulic jacks
10
. This causes the lower car
9
to engage the upright beam
2
by the guiding devices
11
so as to move up or down, thereby changing the distance between the upper and lower cars. The change in the distance is checked by the potentiometer
13
to make an adjustment so as to accomplish agreement with the distance between the landing floors.
Since the conventional double-deck elevator operation control system is configured as set forth above, when the elevator lands in response to a call from a landing elevator hall, the elevator begins decelerating upon response to the call from the landing elevator hall in a quickest case. Therefore, the adjustment for making the distance between the cars coincide with the distance between the landing floors must be completed in a short time, from the moment the deceleration is started to the landing. Hence, the deceleration speed greatly varies according to the amount of movement required for adjusting the distance between the cars and the time required for completing the movement, presenting a problem of deteriorated riding comfort.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made with a view toward solving the problem described above, and it is an object of the invention to provide a double-deck elevator control system capable of running a double-deck elevator installed in a building having different distances between some floors, and which has a car frame retaining two cars such that at least one of the two cars may be vertically moved relative to the other in such a manner that the cars travel at the same acceleration or deceleration and stop according to a distance between the floors.
To this end, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a double-deck elevator control system comprising: a car frame for retaining two cars such that at least one of the two cars may be vertically moved; a first control unit for controlling a movement of the car frame; an actuator for vertically moving at least one of the two cars with respect to the car frame; a second control unit for controlling the actuator; and a remaining travel distance computing unit for computing a remaining distance from a current position of each of the car frame and the cars to a planned stopping position, wherein the first control unit controls a movement of the car frame based on a remaining travel distance of the car frame, while the second control unit controls the actuator based on a difference between the remaining travel distance of the car frame and a remaining travel distance of each car.
In a preferred form of the present invention, the double-deck elevator control system may be further provided with a detector for detecting a relative position of each car with respect to the car frame, and the remaining travel distance of each car may be calculated based on the relative position of each car with respect to the car frame.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a double-deck elevator control system comprising: a car frame for retaining two cars such that at least one of the two cars may be vertically moved; a first control unit for controlling a movement of the car frame; an actuator for vertically moving at least one of the two cars with respect to the car frame; a second control unit for controlling the actuator; a remaining travel distance computing unit for computing a remaining distance from a current position of each of the car frame and the cars to a planned stopping position; and a speed command generating unit for generating a speed command value based on the travel distance of the car frame and outputting the speed command value to the first control unit and for generating a speed command value based on a remaining travel distance of each car and outputting the speed command value to the second control unit, wherein the first control unit controls the movement of the car frame based on the speed command value of the car frame, while the second control unit controls the actuator based on a difference between the speed command value of the car frame and a speed command value of each car.
In a preferred form of the double-deck elevator control system in accordance with the present invention, the actuator may be constituted by two lifting units for vertically moving the two cars independently.
In another preferred form, one of the two cars is secured to the car frame, and only the other car is vertically moved by the actuator.
In yet another preferred form, the actuator vertically moves the two cars at an equal interval in opposite directions.
In a further preferred form, the actuator has a pantograph mechanism.
In a further preferred form, the actuator has a suspension type elevator mechanism.
In a further preferred form, while the car frame and an upper and lower car are decelerating, the speed command value for the car frame is calculated as a mean value of a speed command value for the lower car and a speed command value for the upper car.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4337847 (1982-07-01), Schroeder et al.
patent: 4354577 (1982-10-01), Yonemoto
patent: 5220981 (1993-06-01), Kahkipuro et al.
patent: 5861587 (1999-01-01), Powell et al.
patent: 5907136 (1999-05-01), Hongo et al.
patent: 616
Leydig , Voit & Mayer, Ltd.
Mitsubishi Denki & Kabushiki Kaisha
Salata Jonathan
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