Elevator – industrial lift truck – or stationary lift for vehicle – Having specific load support drive-means or its control – Includes control for power source of drive-means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-18
2001-07-31
Salata, Jonathan (Department: 2837)
Elevator, industrial lift truck, or stationary lift for vehicle
Having specific load support drive-means or its control
Includes control for power source of drive-means
C187S414000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267205
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a rope for an elevator system, and more particularly to a magnetic guide assembly for minimizing undesirable movements of the elevator system rope.
A conventional traction type elevator includes a cab mounted in a car frame, a counterweight attached to the car frame by a rope, and a drive assembly including a machine driving a traction sheave that engages the rope. As the machine turns the sheave, friction forces between the sheave and the rope move the rope and thereby cause the car frame and counterweight to raise and lower.
A limiting factor in the use of ropes, however, is their durability. As the ropes pass through the sheave they have the tendency to migrate from side to side and contact the sheave rope separators. Contact with the separators increases frictional forces that cause significant abrasion and can degrade the rope materials. Such undesirable migration and resulting friction may also be problematic for flat ropes such as coated steel belts (CSB) that are guided through additional elevator drive components such as rope support roller assemblies attached to the car frame and counterweight.
It is therefore desirable to guide the rope at particular locations throughout the elevator drive system to restrain undesirable movement and vibration of the rope. It would also be particularly desirable to minimize contact between the guide system and rope to further reduce undesirable frictional forces.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An elevator system designed according to this invention includes a magnetic guide to restrain undesirable rope vibration and migration without contact between the guide system and rope while reducing undesirable frictional forces. The flat rope is guided through an opening in the magnetic guide between a pair of ferromagnetic flux concentrators. Preferably, a number of teeth on each flux concentrator has a numerical relationship to the number of ferromagnetic wires in the rope. Most preferably, the number of tooth pairs is equal to the number of wires in the rope. Each tooth of the first flux concentrator faces an associated tooth of the second flux concentrator. One of the ferromagnetic wires of the rope preferably is located between the first and second flux concentrators.
The ferromagnetic flux concentrators effectively concentrate the magnetic fields from a pair of magnets into the ends of the teeth. Due to the polarity directions of the magnets, the resulting magnetic field is concentrated as a magnetic flux across each pair of facing teeth and each ferromagnetic wire. In this way, each ferromagnetic wire becomes a part of a magnetic circuit that creates a centralizing magnetic flux. The magnetic flux is intended to minimize reluctance by maintaining the ferromagnetic wire in the center between each facing pair of teeth. As the force associated with the centralizing flux acts on each ferromagnetic wire, the flat rope is magnetically laterally centered within the opening of the magnetic guide and undesirable vibration and migration of the flat rope is accordingly dampened.
In one disclosed embodiment, the magnetic guide is slideably mounted on a slide assembly. As the flat rope is driven by the sheave, the flat rope typically migrates from side to side between the sheave belt separators. The magnetic guide slides along the slide assembly in response to the rope migration until the magnetic guide contacts a lateral stop. The slide stop prevents further migration and thus prevents contact between the flat rope and the rope separators. The slide assembly can operate in combination with the magnetic guide to prevent contact and the resulting friction between the flat belt and the belt separators.
The various features and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the currently preferred embodiment. The drawings that accompany the detailed description can be briefly described as follows.
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Baranda Pedro
Piech Zbigniew
Otis Elevator Company
Salata Jonathan
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