Moving walk

Details Moving walk Moving walk

1998-09-28

2001-01-09

Olszewski, Robert P. (Department: 3652)

Conveyors: power-driven

Conveyor or accessory therefor specialized to convey people

By support means having a zone of varying speed

C198S792000, C198S325000, C198S321000, C104S025000, C104S167000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06170632

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a moving walk to be installed in public facilities such as airport, railroad station, etc., and in particular to a moving walk for transporting users in two opposite directions.
As one of the moving walks currently in practical use, there is a moving walk which comprises sprockets rotatably mounted on left and right sides of the moving walk at one and the other ends of the moving walk, an endless chain engaged on the sprockets at each of the left and right sides of the moving walk, and a number of pallets on which users can ride and which are engaged at their left and right sides with the endless chains so as to be rounded or circulated by rotation of the sprockets.
In this moving walk, users are transported from one end to the other of the moving walk by the pallets moving along an upper or carrier side of a circulating route whereas the pallets moving along a lower or return side of the circulating route do not contribute to transportation of the users. In the moving walk, users cannot be transported in two opposite directions at the same time.
Another type of moving walk is disclosed in JP-B-56-257.
As shown in
FIGS. 1
to
5
, the moving walk disclosed in this Japanese publication comprises a guide rail
102
having an accommodation groove
101
extending in an extending direction of the moving walk, guide plates
104
arranged on upper portions of the guide rail
102
at opposite sides of the groove
101
, each of the guide plates
104
having at its upper surface a running groove
103
extending in the extending direction of the moving walk, pallets
105
on which users can ride, steel balls
107
rotatably supported via receptacles
106
on left and right bottom portions of the pallets
105
so that the balls
107
can roll along the running grooves
103
, and a screw shaft
108
having thread
109
and arranged in the groove
101
to extend in the extending direction of the moving walk.
The screw shaft
108
may be made of bundled steel wires so as to have flexibility.
The screw shaft
108
has portions S and L with shorter and longer pitches in thread
109
, respectively. The portions S with shorter pitch are arranged near boarding sites where users can get on or off the pallets, and the portions L with longer pitch are arranged between the boarding sites.
The screw shaft
108
is connected at its one end to a drive shaft of a motor
110
and is rotatably supported at its other end by a bearing
111
.
Each of the pallets
105
is formed, at its bottom portions closer to front and rear ends, with grooves
112
extending in the moving direction of the pallet
105
, respectively.
Each of the grooves
112
supports an upper portion of a support frame
14
for forward and backward movement of the frame
14
via a shaft
113
extending in the groove
112
in the moving direction of the pallet
105
.
Each of the support frames
114
rotatably supports steel balls
115
at its front and rear bottom portions, respectively, so that the steel balls
115
contact the thread
109
of the screw shaft
108
.
In this moving walk, actuation of the motor
110
causes the support frames
114
to be pushed in the feed direction of the thread
109
in association with rotation of the screw shaft
108
, which moves the pallets
5
.
Moving speed of the pallets
105
is slow at the portions S with shorter pitch in thread
109
which are near the boarding sites and increases at the portions L with longer pitch in thread
109
which are between the boarding sites.
In transition of each pallet
105
from the portion S with shorter pitch in the thread
109
to the portion L with longer pitch or vice versa, the frame supports
114
mounted on the pallet
115
are moved horizontally along the shafts
113
so as to adjust spacing between the support frames
114
according to any change of pitch in the thread
109
.
Because of its flexibility, the screw shaft
108
may be curved to curve the moving route of the pallets
105
.
It may be, therefore, contrived that a number of pallets
105
may be rounded or circulated by substantially annular arrangement of the screw shaft
108
as shown in FIG.
5
.
However, in fact, a screw shaft
108
having good flexibility is difficult to produce and therefore is not suitable for practical use. It is not easy to substantially annularly arrange the screw shaft
108
so as to round or circulate the pallets
105
.
Furthermore, in the moving walk disclosed in JP-B-56-257, the adjacent pallets
105
in the moving direction are not in contact with each other, and therefore fence or the like means must be provided for each of the pallets
105
so as to prevent users from falling off.
The present invention was made in view of the above and has its object to provide a moving walk which can transport users in two opposite directions at the same time and in safe manner.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a moving walk according to the invention, a number of pallets are arranged for rounding or circulation on annular rails each having two linear sectors and two semi-circular sectors combined endlessly and substantially horizontally. Screw rods installed on the linear sectors of the rails are rotated to move in one direction the pallets with their moving rollers engaged with screw grooves of the screw rods.
The adjacent pallets are interconnected by string means. The pallets at positions where no screw rods are arranged are pulled by the pallets moved on and by the screw rods.
On the semi-circular sectors of the rails, each pallet is contacted, at its projection member on a lower surface of the pallet, by a front end of its succeeding pallet. The pallets at the semi-circular sectors of the rails are pushed forward by the pallets moved on and by the screw rods on linear sectors of the rails.
Each pallet is inserted, at its front end, under a rear end of its preceding pallet so that a continuous walk surface is formed.
Each pallet may have a recess at its front end, which recess may be fitted over the projection member of its preceding pallet. This ensures positive engagement of a rear end of each pallet with a front end of its succeeding pallet on the semi-circular sectors of the rails.
The screw rods may be arranged on portions of the linear sectors of the rails closer to the circular sectors, pitch of screw groove on the screw rods being shorter on their portions closer to the circular sectors of the rails and longer on their portions away from the circular sectors of the rails. This decreases the moving speed of the pallets on portions of the linear sectors of the rails closer to the circular sectors, and increases the moving speed of the pallets on the middles of the linear sectors of the rails.
Further screw rods for moving pallets may be separately arranged at the middles the linear sectors of the rails to reduce tensile force to be applied on the string means interconnecting the adjacent pallets.
Each pallet may be provided with tilt-angle compensation rollers rollable over lower surfaces of guide rails, which rollers forwardly tilt the pallet moved from the linear sectors of the rails to the semi-circular sectors so that the rear end of the pallet jumps away from the front end of its succeeding pallet. The rollers release the forward tilting of the pallet moved from the semi-circular sectors of the rails to the linear sectors so that the rear end of the pallet is overlapped with the front end of its succeeding pallet.
Steps may be arranged on boarding sites where users may get on or off the pallets. Each of such steps has comb teeth which may be fitted into grooves extending longitudinally on an upper surface of each pallet to remove any foreign objects in the grooves of the pallet.
The step may be vertically movably supported. Tracer means may be provided to vertically move the step in accordance with the upper surface of the pallet passing near the position where the step is arranged. This prevents the comb teeth from contacting bottoms of the grooves of the pallet.
Elastic buffer means may be provided bet

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