Abstract: The invention relates to an elevator comprising an elevator car unit containing at least two elevator cars and to a procedure for controlling the elevator. According to the invention, at least one elevator car can be moved vertically within the elevator car unit relative to its frame. The procedure is characterized in that prior to start-up, the exact distances between landings are measured and stored in memory. The distance data corresponding to the control instruction according to a unit call or car call is then determined, and based on this data, the elevator car unit is caused to move in the shaft to a position corresponding to the call. At least one of the elevator cars is caused to move relative to the frame of the unit to a position corresponding to the distance between the floors in question.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and means for determining the position of an elevator car on the principle of floor selection by means of a pulse train, whereby the position of the elevator car is determined on the basis of a pulse count indicating the elevator's speed. The achieve a more reliable pulse count based floor selection system which is suited for use with any type of elevator, the pulses required for calculating the elevator position for floor selection are obtained from an acceleration sensor placed on the elevator car, the output signal of which is integrated so as to obtain a voltage representing the speed of the elevator car, said voltage being converted into a pulse train whose frequency is dependent on the speed of movement of the elevator car.

Abstract: A torque-responsive brake, in particular for elevators, comprises two or more brakes arcs, brake shoes pivotally connected to the brake arcs and having attached brake linings and a brake actuating mechanism for pressing the brake linings against a drum. With prior art brakes, the starting of the elevator was not smooth enough or, alternatively, the types of apparatus by which smooth starting has been achieved were too complicated and expensive. By the present invention these drawbacks have been overcome in that, for pivotally attaching each brake shoe to its brake arc, a pivot shaft extends through the respective brake shoe and is connected to one end of a torque-responsive member, the opposite end of which is fixed to the respective brake arc.