Tall building escape apparatus
A tall building escape apparatus includes two upright sliding rails on one side of a building where two escape exits are located. The sliding rails are cylindrical rods extended from the ground floor to the top floor of the building corresponding to hanging racks located on the top floor. The hanging racks have pulleys mounted thereon to wind a rope between the two hanging racks. The rope has two ends fastened respectively to an escape case. The escape case has retaining rollers with curved periphery to clamp the sliding rails, buffer members on the bottom side, and an entrance/exit opening on one side directing to the escape exit. When a user escapes by descending through one escape case, another escape case is pulled by the rope upwards to enable another user to escape. Thus escape speed is faster, and safety is enhanced and there is no limitation of the applicable height.
The present invention relates to a tall building escape apparatus and particularly to an escape apparatus to provide rapid escape without using power equipment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONPublic building has to provide fire fighting and escape facilities. The most commonly used escape facility is the slow descending apparatus which includes a hanging rack fixedly installed on each floor of the building and a slow descending device located nearby. In the event of fire breaking, the slow descending device is hung on the hanging rack, and a loop strap of the slow descending, device is hitched on the user. The user may descend slowly to the ground floor by means of user's own weight from the high rise building.
However such a slow descending apparatus has drawbacks, such as the escape speed is slow, poor safety, and has limitation on the applicable height. Details of these drawbacks are elaborated as follow:
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- 1. Slow escape speed:
- When the user has descended on the ground floor, the loop strap has to be rewound to enable the next user to descend. Not only the descending speed is slow, the winding of the loop strap is a waste of time.
- 2. Poor safety:
- During descending, the user is hitched by the loop strap and hanged in a suspended manner in the air without any traction in the surrounding. The user tends to dangle or swivel under external forces.
- 3. Limitation of applicable height:
- Because of the potential risks mentioned above, it is suitable only in the low or medium height floors.
In view of the aforesaid disadvantages, the invention aims to provide a tall building escape apparatus that can provide rapid escape without using power equipment. The escape apparatus according to the invention includes two escape exits on one side of a building and two upright sliding rails abutting the escape exits. The sliding rails are cylindrical rods extended from the ground floor to the top floor of the building. There are hanging racks on the top floor corresponding to the sliding rails. There are pulleys fixedly mounted on the hanging racks to wind a rope. The rope has two ends each is fastened to an escape case. The escape case has retaining wheels that have a curved periphery to clamp the sliding rail. The bottom side of the escape case has buffer members. There is an entrance/exit opening located on one side of the escape case directing to the escape exit. When a user descends through one escape case, another escape case is lifted by the rope at the same time to enable another user to escape. Thus not only escape speed is faster, safety is enhanced, and there is not applicable height limitation.
By means of the structure set forth above, the invention can provide the following advantages:
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- 1. Faster escape:
- As there are two sets of pulleys located on the top floor of the building to wind the rope, and two escape cases are fastened to two ends of the rope, when one escape case is descended to convey an user, the rope pulls another escape case upwards at the same time to enable another user to escape. There is no waiting or waste of time.
- 2. Greater safety:
- The escape case slides downwards along the sliding rails, and the bottom side of the escape case has buffer members to provide cushion so that users may be prevented from injury when the escape case drops to the ground floor.
- 3. No height limitation:
- The two escape cases are linked by the rope and slide along the sliding rails, hence they may be used securely without height limitation. Moreover, descending and lifting of the escape cases are steadier.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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Claims
1. A tall building escape apparatus, comprising:
- two hanging racks located on a top floor of a building fastening respectively to pulleys, the pulleys of the two hanging racks being wound by a rope, the rope having two ends each fastening to an escape case; and
- two sliding rails located on one side of the building corresponding to the hanging racks and extended from the ground floor to a front side of the hanging racks;
- wherein the escape case has retaining rollers to clamp the sliding rails, buffer members on the bottom side thereof, an entrance/exit opening on one side, and brake devices; the brake devices having clamp members pivotally located on one side of the sliding rail that have outer sides attached to braking pads to clamp the sliding rails and inner sides bridged by elastic members.
2. The tall building escape apparatus of claim 1, wherein the clamp member has a brake line located on an inner side to connect to a pedal.
3. The tall building escape apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sliding rails are cylindrical rods, and the retaining rollers have a curved periphery corresponding to the sliding rails.
4. The tall building escape apparatus of claim 1, wherein the entrance/exit opening has a bottom edge extending to form an extension board directing to an escape exit of the building.
Type: Application
Filed: May 21, 2004
Publication Date: Dec 8, 2005
Inventor: Tzu-I Chen (Kaohsiung City)
Application Number: 10/849,779