Otis Elevator Company

LucyMary Salmon

Joseph Bittar

Paul Bennett

Bruce A Powell

Anthony Cooney

Richard C McCarthy

Frederick H Barker

Samuel C Wan

A first slidable auxiliary pinion (58a) on the bottom of a horizontally moveable elevator cab A (FIGS. 2-6) disposed on a car frame (14) or a landing is moved out from under the cab toward another car frame (13) or landing by means of a motorized pinion (56) until it engages a motorized pinion (57) on the adjacent car frame (13) or landing, which then pulls the auxiliary pinion and the entire cab toward the other car frame or landing until a main rack (45) fixed to the bottom of the cab engages a motorized pinion (34) on the other car frame (13) or landing, which pinion then pulls the entire cab onto the other car frame or landing. The auxiliary racks (58a, 58b) may be mounted on a common auxiliary rack member (58), or may be separate. The auxiliary motorized pinions (55, 56, 57) may be bidirectional, or may be; and auxiliary pinions (32C, 33C, 34C) may be; mounted on the same shaft with main pinions (32b, 33b, 34b).

Fail-safe movement of elevator cabs between car frames and landings

Elevator cabs A-C move upwardly through three or more contiguous overlapping hoistways 38-40 in the upper decks of double deck car frames 41-43, and move downwardly through the hoistways in the lower decks (or vice versa). To switch between decks, the cabs are offloaded from the hoistways into auxiliary elevators 50, 51 at the terminal ends of the shuttle, and are moved to be adjacent to the other deck by the auxiliary elevator and loaded thereon for the trip in the opposite direction. A second embodiment has additional auxiliary elevators 64, 65 and additional cabs D, E so that loading and unloading of passengers do not delay movement of the cabs in the hoistways.

Elevator shuttle with auxiliary elevators at terminals

A particular elevator (1-9) is commandeered to transfer an emergency cab F to (or near) a floor where an alarm has been sounded. The commandeered car is brought to the floor FF where the emergency cab is parked. The fire cab is exchanged for the normal cab C on the commandeered car, and is then carried to (or near) the alarm floor for responding to the alarm. Passengers in the normal cab may exit through landing doorways (23). Emergency personnel have access to the alarm area through emergency hoistway doors (27). A rack and pinion horizontal motive means for moving the cabs is illustrated (FIG. 12 ).

Emergency elevator cab commandeering shuttle

Horizontally moveable elevator cabs A-E are transferrable between the car frames (72) of two elevators HI, LO in adjacent hoistways which extend between at least three levels (GND, MID, SKY) of a building, and between the car frames and landings L, R at said levels. The vertical movement of cars in the hoistways is synchronized, and transfer of elevator cabs between landings and car frames is simultaneous.

Growing community of inventors

South Windsor, CT, United States of America

LucyMary Salmon