Inventio Ag

Richard Lauch

Melanie Jean Smith

Roger Frazier

A service barrier for elevator equipment and a method for deploying the same, said barrier comprising a floor plate and a plurality of leaves hinged along vertical axes, said floor plate pivotally mounted in front of said elevator equipment and at least one of said plurality of hinged leaves mounted to a side of said elevator equipment, wherein the floor plate is pivotal from a stored position to a substantially horizontal extended position, and said plurality of hinged leaves fold out from a stored position between said stored floor plate and said elevator equipment to an extended position thereby establishing a space in front of said elevator equipment so as to permit maintenance work.

Service barrier

An escalator brake torque monitoring apparatus comprises a brake having a brake arm with a mounting point for pivotally affixing the brake to a fixed element of the escalator. A torque sensor is mounted to the brake arm at the mounting point and is affixed to the fixed element. The torque sensor, which may preferably be torque-sensing bolt, generates an output proportional to torque generated by the brake during brake operation. The output of the sensor is compared to at least one reference value corresponding to a minimum acceptable level of torque. In the event the sensed torque is below the minimum, the escalator can be shut down to prevent restart until the failure condition is corrected.

Automated brake torque monitoring system

An escalator combtooth assembly for an escalator is responsive to combplate obstruction and generates an alarm signal when an obstruction is encountered. One or more combteeth plates are pivotally mounted to the front or leading edge at a combplate assembly. In response to an encountered obstruction one or more of the plates rotate upwardly. Electrical switch contacts associated with the combteeth plates change state when the plate rotates, allowing an alarm signal to be generated. The combteeth plates may include rearwardly-extending arms which pass through accepting slots located at the rear of a ledge on a main complete body upon which the combteeth plates rest. A guide device, such as a bolt, limits the degree of available rotation for the plates, which are biased in an initial position, preferably by an elastomeric member.

Escalator combteeth force detector

A door locking system for retrofit installation on an automatic sliding two-panel door of an elevator car prohibits opening and closing of the door from the interior of the car when between two floors. The door locking system includes a hook retainer mounted on one side of the door opening. A locking pawl is mounted to a panel of the door on the opposite side of the opening for selectably engaging the hook retainer. A cable is coupled to a drive mechanism and to the locking pawl for disengaging the locking pawl from the hook retainer when at a floor stop. A flexible cable housing slidably retains the cable and defines a path length between the drive mechanism and the locking pawl. A path length adjuster mechanism is connected between two sections of the cable housing for manually adjusting the path length. A hold-down is mounted to the door to retain the cable housing in close proximity to the door while permitting movement parallel with the door in response to adjustment of the path length.

Adjustable door restrictor cable for an elevator car

An illuminated escalator combplate has a main combplate portion and a combteeth element extending forwardly of the main portion. A series of light emitters are mounted to a forward edge of the main portion, and are aligned with a corresponding series of light pipes in the combteeth element which channel the light of the emitters from a rearward wall adjacent the main portion forward edge to an upper surface of the combteeth element where the light can be seen by escalator users and serves as a safety indicator to demarcate the intersection between the fixed combplate and the moving escalator step plates. The light emitter may be in alternately-illuminated, interleaved gangs to increase visability.

Illuminated escalator combplate

An escalator combplate load and obstruction sensor is capable of monitoring and indicating both horizontal and vertical force and loads. The combplate is mounted for limited horizontal and vertical travel in response to corresponding horizontal and vertical loads. Both the horizontal and vertical travel are resolved into a displacement at an angle to both the horizontal and vertical, and the displacement is applied to a sensing portion of a loadcell which generates an electrical output proportional to the applied displacement and force. An indicator is coupled to the loadcell to indicate a relationship between the displacement applied to the loadcell and at least one reference value, whereby the horizontal and vertical loads applied to the combplate can be monitored and improper load levels determined. By proper choice of the displacement angle differing vertical and horizontal forces can be resolved into the same displacement, allowing a single indicator to simultaneously display both vertical and horizontal loading status.

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Hopatcong, NJ, United States of America

Richard Lauch