Elevator – industrial lift truck – or stationary lift for vehicle – With call registration means – Shared by plural load supports
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-28
2001-12-11
Salata, Jonathan (Department: 2837)
Elevator, industrial lift truck, or stationary lift for vehicle
With call registration means
Shared by plural load supports
C187S393000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328134
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a group management and control system for elevators.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an ordinary elevator system, acceleration and jerk rate of each elevator are generally set in advance and not changed. However, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 4-226283 and 9-267977, for example, disclose a system including means for speeding up a floor-to-floor moving time of each elevator and means for and slowing down the same, one of these means being selected depending on a traffic state of the elevator. In those Publications, the acceleration is increased as practical means for speeding up the floor-to-floor moving time.
Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 61-263579 discloses a system for increasing acceleration in a time period when the number of passengers reaches a peak, thereby improving the transport efficiency.
In the related art, however, the load in a cage has not been taken into account as a condition for changing the acceleration and the jerk rate. This implies the necessity of preparing a hoist, a motor, etc. which are durable against a high acceleration, for example, even in a fully occupied condition, thus often resulting in a remarkable increase in the cost of an elevator system.
Further, many recent elevator systems employ a technique for preannouncing, to persons who are going to take the elevator, through a responding unit as soon as the person pushes a call button in an elevator hall, by using a hall lantern. Such a technique is based on the estimated time at which each elevator will arrive at each floor. Where a plurality of elevators are installed, however, there is a problem that, if the elevators travel at different accelerations from each other, a wrong arrival preannouncement is more likely to occur due to an error in estimation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
With the view of solving the problems set forth above, an object of the present invention is to provide a group management and control system for elevators, which can ensure high transport efficiency while an ordinary hoist, a motor, etc. are employed, and which can perform appropriate group management and control without causing a wrong arrival preannouncement even when a plurality of elevators travel at different accelerations from each other.
To achieve the above object, the present invention is constructed as follows.
(1) In a group management and control system for elevators which manages and controls a plurality of elevators as a group, the system comprises a load detecting unit for detecting a load in each elevator cage; an acceleration setting unit for setting an acceleration and a jerk rate of each elevator to predetermined upper limit values in accordance with a detected result of the in-cage load from the load detecting unit when the in-cage load is within a certain range from a balanced state; an estimation processing unit for computing estimated time at which each elevator will arrive each floor on the basis of the detected result of the in-cage load and the set acceleration; an assignment control unit for assigning an appropriate elevator in response to a call issued from an elevator hall in consideration of an estimation processing result; and an operation control unit for controlling operation of each elevator in accordance with an assignment result.
(2) In the group management and control system for elevators of above (1), preferably, the system further comprises a traffic flow recognizing unit for recognizing what traffic flow occurs in a facility in which the elevators are installed, and the estimation processing unit computes the estimated time at which each elevator will arrive each floor and the estimated in-cage load at each floor on the basis of the detected result of the in-cage load, the set acceleration and the recognized traffic flow.
(3) In the group management and control system for elevators of above (1) or (2), preferably, the estimation processing unit computes the estimated time at which each elevator will arrive each floor using two kinds of data given as a standard acceleration and a changed acceleration when the acceleration of the elevator is changed by the acceleration setting unit, and the assignment control unit assigns an appropriate elevator in consideration of the standard acceleration and the changed-acceleration.
(4) In the group management and control system for elevators of any one of above (1) to (3), preferably, the system further comprises an acceleration learning adjustment unit for adjustably setting, based on learning, limit values up to which the acceleration and the jerk rate of each elevator can be increased.
(5) In the group management and control system for elevators of above (4), preferably, the acceleration learning adjustment unit performs a test operation to confirm up to what levels of acceleration and jerk rate each elevator can travel with safety in a vacant state, and records results of the test operation for learning.
(6) In the group management and control system for elevators of above (5), preferably, the acceleration learning adjustment unit performs the test operation automatically when the elevator is out of service.
(7) In the group management and control system for elevators of any one of above (1) to (6), preferably, the system further comprises a user interface for optionally changing the acceleration, the jerk rate and operating conditions from the outside.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4166518 (1979-09-01), Nakazato et al.
patent: 4531616 (1985-07-01), Uetani et al.
patent: 5241141 (1993-08-01), Cominelli
patent: 5290976 (1994-03-01), Bahjat et al.
patent: 5637841 (1997-06-01), Dugan et al.
patent: 5663538 (1997-09-01), Sakita
patent: 5786550 (1998-07-01), Thangavelu
patent: 50-48645 (1975-04-01), None
patent: 57-184078 (1982-11-01), None
patent: 61-263579 (1986-11-01), None
patent: 4-226283 (1992-08-01), None
patent: 5-147838 (1993-06-01), None
patent: 5-213543 (1993-08-01), None
patent: 9-267977 (1997-10-01), None
Leydig , Voit & Mayer, Ltd.
Mitsubishi Denki & Kabushiki Kaisha
Salata Jonathan
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