Abstract: For assembling hoistway or elevator shaft equipment, there is moved in vertical direction within the hoistway, an erection scaffolding comprising a first working platform, a second working platform, a third working platform and a fourth working platform. The first working platform is arranged at the lower end and the second working platform at the upper end of a elevator car support frame serving for the reception of the elevator cabin following completion of the erection operations. The erection scaffolding continues above the elevator car support frame with the third working platform and ends with the fourth working platform. A suspension tube, a lower deflecting roller and an upper deflecting roller serve as a suspension system for the elevator car support frame. The lower deflecting roller is arranged at the upper end of the suspension tube and the upper deflecting roller is arranged at an elevator hoistway support.

Abstract: An elevator car has a passenger space bounded by a pair of side walls and a ceiling with a fluorescent tube attached to the ceiling and a ceiling frame suspended from the ceiling and supporting translucent filler panels. An opaque middle ceiling strip is attached to the ceiling frame between two of the filler panels and below and in longitudinal alignment with the fluorescent tube. A pair of spot lamps are attached to an upper surface of the middle ceiling strip and are exposed through holes in the strip to illuminate predetermined areas of the side walls containing destination floor actuating elements and information panels for the floors. The middle ceiling strip has one side rotatably attached to the ceiling frame by a hinge connector for providing access to change the fluorescent tube and the spot lamps. The strip also is releasably retained by a locking bar on the other side thereof which engages the ceiling frame and can be released with the aid of a simple tool.

Abstract: The brake catching device precludes the occurrence of excess speeds of an elevator car or counterweight in downward travel direction. At the front side of a housing there is provided a recess extending throughout the entire housing height, and at one end of such recess there is arranged a brake plate adjacent which there extends a free leg of a guide rail. A trapezoidal or tapered bracket member is inserted into the recess at the part thereof neighboring the free leg of the guide rail. This bracket member has a substantially rectangular-shaped extension protruding out of the housing. The bracket member is provided at the side confronting the guide rail with an upwardly inclined cam having a substantially U-shaped cross-section. Both front surfaces of the cam server as rolling tracks for roller shafts arranged at a cylindrical catching roller.

Abstract: A method for performing operationally prescribed brake trials before the departure of a railway train, utilizes an indicating and diagnostic system disposed on board the train and operated by the train driver. Sensors in the braking system of each car bogie supply information signals representing pressures, travels and forces to a bogie processor which is connected with a car processor. The car processors are connected by a continuous data bus line with a central processor. The central processor processes the operational information from the brake system according to a processing program into status reports such as general status indications, fault diagnoses and maintenance instructions. The indications and instructions are visually displayed on a monitor and a printer, and acoustically reproduced by a speech synthesizer through a loudspeaker. The car processors are programmable by means of mobile computers and interrogatable by means of pocket terminals.

Abstract: A vandal resistant push button assembly has a guide ring attached to a mounting plate spaced from a face plate such as an indicating and announcing device or a modular wall assembly of an elevator car. The guide ring has a first shoulder which cooperates with a snap ring engaging a first annular groove formed in the guide ring for retaining the ring in an opening formed in the mounting plate. There is play between the periphery of the opening in the mounting plate and the outer diameter of the guide ring such that the guide ring can be aligned with respect to an opening in the face plate and the snap will cover the gap defined by the play. A push button slidably extends through the guide rings on first and second guide surfaces to actuate a switch and a second shoulder formed on the push button engages a stop surface on the guide ring to prevent further travel in the actuation direction.

Abstract: An additional emergency brake apparatus is provided for an elevator installation which contains a car, counterweight, hoist ropes, drive sheave, motor, brake and elevator car safety. This additional emergency brake apparatus acts directly at the drive sheave and is intended to accomplish emergency braking in the upward direction of travel of the car, because in this travel direction the elevator car safety cannot be used for a number of reasons. A star-shaped brake element located at the shaft of the drive sheave is permanently pressed by a cup spring against an annular end surface of the drive sheave and normally rotates together with the shaft of the drive sheave. In the event of overspeed in the upward travel direction of the car, a tripping mechanism displaces an arresting bolt between the spokes of the star-shaped brake element, blocks the latter and thus produces an appropriate braking torque by means of braking plates bearing at the annular end surface.

Abstract: The key-operated switch enables realization of a switch construction which is extensively independent of the dimensions of standard cylinder locks and mounting thereof independent of the surroundings. A switch housing open at one side comprises side walls, a floor, a lower portion and an upper portion. Longitudinal slots provided at the side walls extend parallel to wide side edges of the side walls and serve for guiding first fastening screws. A housing cover member which fits in the housing opening and having bevelled corners and flaps is displaceable throughout a predetermined distance along the longitudinal slots. At the operator side of the key-operated switch the housing cover member carries a collar connected by second fastening screws with such housing cover member. A throughpass opening is provided at the housing cover member through which piercingly extends a standard cylinder lock attached at the collar.

Abstract: An elevator car suitable for use by physically handicapped passengers can be selected from a group of elevator cars under the control of a group control wherein call registering and indicating devices positioned at the floors served by the cars include an additional key for activating a switching circuit. The switching circuit is connected to a car load memory and a memory for storing the alighting calls for target floors where passengers are to leave the cars. A first condition is satisfied when there is no alighting call for a car, no exiting passenger to interfere with an entering wheelchair, and a second condition is satisfied when the load, number of passengers, in a car is smaller than a certain load limit value indicating sufficient space for the wheelchair.

Abstract: A device for opening and closing a shaft door of an elevator and a method of use thereof. The device includes a first coupling member adapted to be positioned on the shaft door and a second coupling member being adapted to be positioned on a car door on an elevator car. The first coupling member and the second coupling member cooperate with each other to couple the shaft door to the car door for movement therewith when the car is at a landing, the first coupling member cooperating with the second coupling member without contact between the first coupling member and the second coupling member. By means of the foregoing arrangement, noises and vibrations, which arise from the opening and unlatching of a shaft door entrained by a driven car door, can largely be avoided.

Abstract: A guide bar for an elevator door includes a beam having a plurality of attachment apertures formed therein for the attachment of a guide, sliding or roller. The apertures are arranged in a staggered pattern providing for numerous adjustment possibilities for the guide to accommodate variations between the door and a guide track for the door. The guide is attached to a first horizontal web of the beam and extends into a groove mortised into the door sill, whereby the elevator door is guided at the lower end along a predetermined sliding track. Each aperture is formed from three overlapping circular recesses, the center points of which form an isosceles triangles such that bolt heads of fasteners are supported on at least two thirds of their circumference by the first web. The center points of the recesses of the apertures are staggered with respect to the center points of each of the other recesses in a direction transverse of the first web by a step width to provide a plurality of adjustment possibilities.

Abstract: A runner guide for an elevator door includes a ramp member at an end of travel position along a guide rail for engaging a roller attached to the door and running on the guide rail. The roller has a rim disc which engages a surface on the ramp member to move an insert in the roller out of engagement with the rail thereby relieving the load on and preventing flattening of the running surface on the insert when the door is at rest. The insert is formed of a non-metallic and hard elastic material to reduce running noise. The door is supported by a pair of such rollers, each having a pair of rim discs, and one roller is asymmetric with one of the rim discs being of a smaller diameter to move past the ramp member associated with the other roller without contact during opening and closing of the door.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for protecting against a person being caught in a closing automatic door provides constant force values up to the few last millimeters of a door closing movement. A regulating error or difference signal representing the difference between the desired door motor speed and the actual motor speed is generated during the door closing travel and is continuously compared with a maximum predetermined tolerance signal produced by a target value generator and a door stop with subsequent reversing is initated if the tolerance value is exceeded. A learning travel computer, during periodic learning travels, determines values for mass compensation and for friction compensation and adds these values to generate a compensation signal which is added to the difference signal as an input to a regulator for controlling the door motor through an electronic switching system.

Abstract: A gearless drive machine for elevators has a machine frame on which are mounted a counter roller carrier, a bearing block and an end plate block. The elevator cable strand spacing can be adjusted by a counter roller coupled to the counter roller carrier, whereby both a left-hand and right-hand overhang of the counter roller is possible with the same construction of the machine frame. A main shaft is supported at two places at a drive output end by a moveable bearing mounted in the bearing block and a fixed bearing mounted in the end plate block. A drive pulley having brake disc is located between the bearings and is coupled to the main shaft by a first detachable coupling. The support of the drive pulley on both sides thereof allows great radial loads with only small deformations of the main shaft. A hoist motor supplied with alternating voltage has a stator with windings and a rotor with a rotor hub slidable onto the main shaft.

Abstract: Elevator guide rails are mounted in an elevator shaft by pivoting into a cutout formed in one of a plurality of fastening plates located in the shaft and securing with a wedge inserted into the cutout. The guide rails are connected together by a rectangular cross section plug which fits into a cooperating rectangular cross section inner area of the guide rail. The plug is partially inserted into the upper end of each guide rail and the next upper guide rail is lowered onto the plug extending from the next lower guide rail. The butt joint between the guide rails does not interfere with the fastening plates since the plug connection is outside the mechanical fastening area. This means that the butt joints and the fastening positions can be at the same height in the elevator shaft without disturbing each other thereby permitting free choice in the placing of both the fastening points and the butt joints.

Abstract: A group control selects the cars of an elevator group for boarding passengers such that the passenger arrive at the shaft door of the selected elevator earlier than the selected car whereby unnecessarily long stops are avoided. A memory for the storage of times needed by a passenger for traversing the paths between the respectively actuated call registering and indicating device and the shaft doors of the elevator is provided for each elevator. A comparator connected to the memory compares the passenger traverse time with the travelling time of the car to the call input floor. If the travelling time is less than the time needed by the passenger to move to the shaft door, a switching device connected to the output of the comparator becomes effective to exclude the elevator from the call allocation procedure.

Abstract: A group control for double car elevators permits the upper as well as the lower cars to be used at a main stopping floor for travel to both even-numbered and odd-numbered floors. The control has a call memory for each car in which the target calls entered at the main stopping floor and identifying the target floors are stored. A switching circuit has an input connected to the call memories in such a manner that the double car is scheduled in dependence on the allocated call as stopping at floor pairs numbered even-odd or odd-even. An output of the switching circuit is connected to a switching device which excludes either the double cars stopping at floor pairs numbered even-odd or at floor pairs numbered odd-even from the allocation process in the case of a subsequent call to be allocated in order to maximize the possiblilities for coincident stops without losing flexibility.

Abstract: A sealing apparatus has inflatable hallow body portions extending around a car opening to close off the space between an elevator shaft wall and the car opening of an elevator car in a draftsproof and weatherproof manner when stopping at a floor. After the car stops at a floor, a pressurized fluid medium is utilized to inflate the hollow body until it is pressed against the shaft wall. The hollow body of the sealing apparatus is ventilated to atmosphere or to a vacuum before the departure of the elevator car from the floor such that the hollow body retracts so as to assure the spacing which is necessary for the free travel of the elevator car in the shaft. The sealing apparatus is monitored for low and excess pressure conditions.

Abstract: An apparatus for sealing an automatic elevator door against sound closes the small air gaps between a door post and a door leaf rear edge, between an abutment and the door leaf top edge, between abutting front edges of door leaves, between an inner door leaf front edge and outer door leaf rear edge in the case of telescopic doors, and between a door sill and a door leaf bottom edge. A post seal utilizes an elastic strip seal to close the post air gap. An abutment seal utilizes a sliding brush seal to close the abutment air gap. A door sill seal utilizes a labyrinth seal to close the sill air gap. A door edge seal utilizes a brush seal to close the front edge air gap. These seals close all the air gaps around the door leaves when the door is closed to prevent the ingress of sound of the noises produced mechanically outside the car.

Abstract: An escalator safety apparatus covers the gap between the movable step and the fixed pedestal plates provided at both sides of a treadable stair belt with an elastic synthetic material lip. The lip is formed as a portion of a synthetic material insert section, which insert section can be mounted in corresponding recesses on both sides of step on the horizontal tread surface and on the arcuate riser. The lip adapts to variations in the spacing from the pedestal plate and has a very low coefficient of friction. The clearance for the passage of the step through a comb positioned at the upper and at the lower end of the travel path of the escalator need be enlarged only minimally and the insert with the lip is removable from the step disassembling the step from the stair belt. In alternate embodiments, the lip is formed on a support connected to the insert section.