GB2320013A - Elevator shuttle system - Google Patents

Abstract

A multi-hoistway shuttle system in which elevator cabs (A, B, C, D, E) are transported between levels. A plurality of hoistways are arranged adjacent one another and overlap, except the upper and lower hoistways. The cabs (A, B, C, D, E) are loaded at a first level into elevator cars, each of which has a plurality of decks and travels vertically in a hoistway. At the top or bottom of each hoistway a car which has reached the top of a lower hoistway and a car which has reached the bottom of an adjacent upper hoistway are situated side by side. The cabs are exchanged by moving them horizontally into the adjacent car. The car containing the new cab is then transported vertically and the cab inside the car continues its journey up or down until the desired level is reached. In the system described there are N cabs for each hoistway plus N for each level, 2N landings at each level and 3N decks on each car. This system allows more efficient transport of passengers while requiring less hoistways and therefore less space in a building.

Description

Elevator Shuttle System This invention relates to multi-hoistway elevators in which elevator cabs pass each other as they are shifted from a car frame in one hoistway to a car frame in an adjacent hoistway, with the elevator utilizing vertically adjacent landings on the same side of the terminal ends of the highest and lowest hoistway.

In order to conserve space in very tall buildings which is dedicated to elevators on the lower floors, referred to as the core of the building, the elevator hoistways must be used effectively. A recent innovation is the transferring of elevator cabs between the car frames of adjacent hoistways, the cabs passing each other as they transfer between hoistways, so that cabs are traveling downwardly in the downward run of each elevator and cabs are traveling upwardly in the upward run of each elevator, there being a plurality of cabs moving substantially at all times in a single, multi-hoistway elevator shuttle. In our copending European patent applicationNoO78510O,the highest and the lowest hoistway have two decks per elevator cab, and all intermediate hoistways have two decks per elevator cab plus one additional deck. When each elevator carries only one cab at a time, the highest and lowest hoistways have two decks and the intermediate hoistways have three decks. When each elevator carries two cabs at a time, the highest and lowest hoistways have four decks and the intermediate hoistways have five decks. However, that system works only in configurations in which the cars remain in the elevator car frames within the hoistway while passengers are loaded and unloaded, or, in configurations utilizing off shaft loading, landings for the cabs to rest upon while loading and unloading must be provided on both sides of the elevator shaft.

We have proposed that the car frames in each of the hoistways of the system include two decks per cab plus one additional deck: that is, three decks in all of the hoistways in a system transporting one cab at a time, and five decks in all of the hoistways in a system transporting two cabs at a time. In this system, the landings for of shaft loading and unloading can all be on the same side of a hoistway, but each time that a pair of cabs are transferred onto the landings, they are separated by an intermediate floor level; similarly, each time a pair of cabs are transferred from landings onto a car frame, they are separated by one deck of the car frame.

Objects of the invention include a multihoistway elevator system in which cabs are traveling substantially at all times in each of the overlapping hoistways of the system, with landings on a single side of the elevator shaft at which cabs arrive on vertically adjacent landings and cabs depart from adjacent landings.

According to the present invention, an elevator shuttle system comprises: a plurality of adjacent elevator hoistways extending between a first level of a building and at least one more level of the building vertically remote from said first level, the upper end of each of said hoistways except the highest hoistways overlapping with the lower end of another hoistway, the lower end of each of said hoistways except the lowest hoistway in said system overlapping with another of said hoistways; a plurality of horizontally moveable elevator cabs including N elevator cabs for each of said hoistways plus N elevator cabs for each of said levels; a plurality of vertically adjacent landings on the same side of a hoistway adjacent thereto at each of said levels, there being 2N landings at each of said levels; a car frame for each of said hoistways, each of said car frames having 3N decks; and horizontal motive means for exchanging said cabs between adjacent ones ofsaid car frames, and between said landings and car frames adjacent to said landings. Thus each car frame of an elevator shuttle system which simultaneously moves elevator cabs in each of a plurality of overlapping elevator shafts that comprise a single shuttle, utilizes three decks per elevator cab that it carries at one time, and two landings on the same side of the hoistway per elevator cab that it carries at one time. Specifically, in an embodiment where one cab is traveling in each hoistway at substantially all times, the car frames in each hoistway have three decks each, and the terminal ends of the highest and lowest hoistways have two landings each on the same side of the hoistway. In an embodiment in which two cabs are traveling in each hoistway substantially at all times, the car frames in each hoistway have six decks each, and the terminal ends of each the highest and lowest hoistways have four landings each on the same side of the hoistway.

In systems carrying a single elevator in each hoistway at a time, the invention permits landing single cabs at vertically adjacent landings, on the same side of the elevator hoistway, in alternate landings. In systems carrying two elevators in each hoistway at a time, the invention permits landing pairs of elevator cabs at alternate times in vertically adjacent alternate pairs of vertically adjacent landings on the same side of the elevator hoistway.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in the light of the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing s.

Brief Description of the Drawings Figs. 1-6 are stylized, simplified, partially broken away, schematic side elevation views of a shuttle according to the invention carrying one cab in each hoistway, to provide service between the uppermost and lowermost levels of a three hoistway, two level system.

Fig. 7 is a simplified side elevation view of car frames and a cab, illustrating a horizontal motive means which the invention may use to move cabs from one car frame to another.

Figs. 8-13 are stylized, simplified, partially broken away, schematic side elevation views of a shuttle according to the invention carrying two cabs in each hoistway to provide service between the uppermost and lowermost levels of a three hoistway, two level system.

In Fig. 1, a three deck, low elevator car frame 15 has just unloaded cab A onto the lowermost landing 16 and has just received cab B from the upper landing 17 at the lowest level 18 of the building. The three deck car frame 15 operates in a low hoistway 19. A three deck mid car frame 22 has just received cab C from a high car frame 23 and has just transferred cab D to the high car frame. The mid car frame 22 operates in a mid hoistway 24 and the high car frame 23 operates in a high hoistway 25. A cab E waits at the upper landing 28 of an upper level of the building 29, which includes an empty lower landing 30.

In Fig. 2, the low car frame 15 rises to the top of the hoistway 19 and exchanges cabs with the mid car frame 22 which has moved two the bottom of the hoistway 24. At the same time, the high car frame 23 has risen to the very top of the hoistway 25 to deliver cab D to the landing 30 and to receive cab E from the landing 28. In Fig. 3, the high car frame 23 once again exchanges cabs with the mid car frame 22 and the low car frame 15 exchanges cabs with the landings 16, 17 at the low level 18. The process continues in Figs.

4, 5 and 6 in an obvious fashion.

Note that in the embodiment shown, the downwardly traveling cab travels in the center deck of all of the car frames, and the upwardly traveling cabs alternate between traveling upwardly in the upper decks of the car frames and traveling upwardly in the lower decks of the car frames. Traveling upwardly in the upper decks, such as cab B in Figs. 1-3 overlaps with the traveling upwardly in the lower decks, such as cab D in Fig. 1 and cab A in Fig. 3. Of course, the invention will operate in the exact opposite way, with all upwardly traveling cabs traveling in the middle decks, and the downwardly traveling cabs traveling alternatively in the uppermost and lowermost decks of the car frames, in an obvious fashion.

The means for transferring the cabs between the car frames may be a rack and pinion horizontal motive means Such apparatus is partially shown in Fig. 7 in which the cab A (of Figs. 1-6) is shown disposed on the lower deck 30 of the low elevator car frame 15 as it is about to be transferred to the lower deck 31 of the mid car frame 22 (Fig. 4). The bottom of the cab A has a fixed, main rack 32 extending between the front of the cab and the back of the cab (right to left in Fig. 7), and a sliding rack 33 that can slide outwardly to the right, as shown, or to the left.

There are two motorized pinions on each of the car frame platforms 30, 31. First, an auxiliary motorized pinion 35 turns clockwise to drive the sliding auxiliary rack 33 out from under the cab A into the position shown, where it can engage an auxiliary motorized pinion 36 on the platform 31, which is the limit that the rack 33 can slide. Then, the auxiliary motorized pinion 36 will turn clockwise pulling the auxiliary rack 33 (which is now extended to its limit) and therefore the entire cab A to the right as seen in Fig. 7 (on rollers or wheels not shown) until such time as an end 37 of the main rack 32 engages a main motorized pinion (not shown) which is located just behind the auxiliary motorized pinion 36 in Fig. 7.

Then, that main motorized pinion will pull the entire cab A fully onto the platform 31 by means of the main rack 32, and as it does so, a spring (not shown) causes the slidable auxiliary rack 33 to retract under the cab A.

To return the cab A from the platform 31 to the platform 30, the auxiliary pinion 36 will operate counterclockwise, causing the sliding auxiliary rack 33 to move outwardly to the left until its left end 38 engages the auxiliary pinion 35. Then the auxiliary pinion 35 rotates counterclockwise to pull the auxiliary rack 33 and the entire cab B to the left until the left end 39 of the main rack 32 engages a main motorized pinion (not shown) located behind the auxiliary motorized pinion 35, which then pulls the entire cab A to the left until it is fully on the platform 30.

The low car frame 15 and the mid car frame 22 each have two additional platforms (not shown) above the platforms 30, 31. At each position in each hoistway where a cab may be transferred from one car frame to another, there is a sill, such as the sill 40, extending between the two hoistways, over which the cab may travel, and to which the car frames may be locked, by car/floor locks (not shown) such as those disclosed in our copending European patent application No. 0776859.

Each cab, such as the cab B, can be locked to any platform, such as the platform 30, by means of cab/car locks (not shown) such as those disclosed in our European patent application No. 0776858.

Each of the landings 16, 17, 28, 30 have similar apparatus to that described with respect to the platforms 30, 31 so as to be able to transfer cabs from the car frames onto the landings. The landings also will typically have cab/car locks of the type described above.

Figs. 8-13 illustrate another embodiment of the invention, which is identical to the embodiment of Figs. 1-6 except there are two cabs in each car frame, and therefore there are four landings at each terminal level and six decks in each car frame. The letters A, B, C are utilized in precisely the same positions thereby indicating identical operation whether it be in the single version of Figs. 1-6 or the double version of Figs. 8-13. Of course, three cars could be moved at a time with six landings and nine-deck car frames, provided the weight were not prohibitive. The invention may also be practiced with only two or more than three adjacent hoistways, four or five overlapping hoistways being likely for hypertall buildings. Thus, for each hoistway, there is a car frame having three decks per cab that the hoistways will carry at a time (one in Figs. 1-6 and two in Figs. 7-12) and two landings per cab that the car frames will move at each time at each terminal level.

A control for the present system is relatively simple since all three (or more) car frames will travel to the same position, cycle after cycle, for exchange of cabs with adjacent car frames. The highest and lowest car frames will travel to an upper position before stopping whenever they are approaching the landings with cabs in the lower levels (upper landing, Figs. 2, 6, 8 and 12; lower landing, Figs. 3 and 9) and similarly will travel to a lower position at the landings whenever they have cabs in the uppermost decks (Fig. 4 at the upper landing; Figs. 1, 5, 8 and 12 at the lower landing). Thus, sensing the presence of cabs in one deck or the other can determine the target floor for stopping of the car frames at the landings. Controls may take the form of the aforementioned copending European patent application No. 0785160 with obvioius simplifying modifications, or take some other form, as desired.

Thus, although the invention has been shown and described with respect to exemplary embodiments thereof, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and various other changes, omissions and additions may be made therein and thereto, without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.

Claims (6)

Claims

1. An elevator shuttle system comprising: a plurality of adjacent elevator hoistways extending between a first level of a building and at least one more level of the building vertically remote from said first level, the upper end of each of said hoistways except the highest hoistways overlapping with the lower end of another hoistway, the lower end of each of said hoistways except the lowest hoistway in said system overlapping with another of said hoistways; a plurality of horizontally moveable elevator cabs including N elevator cabs for each of said hoistways plus N elevator cabs for each of said levels; a plurality of vertically adjacent landings on the same side of a hoistway adjacent thereto at each of said levels, there being 2N landings at each of said levels; a car frame for each of said hoistways, each of said car frames having 3N decks; and horizontal motive means for exchanging said cabs between adjacent ones ofsaid car frames, and between said landings and car frames adjacent to said landings.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein there is one cab per hoistway, one cab per level, two landings per level and three decks on each of said car frames.

3. A system according to claim 1 wherein there are two cabs per hoistway, two cabs per level, four landings per level and six decks on each of said car frames.

4. A system according to claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein there are two of said levels.

5. A system according to any of claims 1 to 4 wherein there are three of said overlapping hoistways.

6. An elevator shuttle system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.