US3814215A - Elevator control apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

An elevator control apparatus comprising a synchronizer movable at a reduced speed proportional to the running speed of an elevator car, an advancer arranged for advancing movement on the synchronizer within a predetermined range for detecting a floor originating a call, and means for determining the running speed of the elevator car depending on the position of the advancer, hence the position of the floor orginating the call, relative to the position of the synchronizer, hence the floor position of the elevator car, when the advancer moves and stops at the position corresponding to the floor from which the call is originated. In the elevator control apparatus, a pre-advancer is additionally provided for making advancing movement within a range outside the movable range of the advancer for detecting another floor originating another call so that it can detect calls originating from the range which is outside the detectable range of the advancer.

Description

. United StatesPatent 1191 Takahashi et al.

[ 1 ELEVATOR CONTROL APPARATUS [75] lnventors: Yoshinori Takahashi; Masao Takizawa, both of Katsuta, Japan [73] Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan [22] Filed: Apr. 4, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 347,690

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Primary Examin er-Bernard A. Gilheany Assistant tqm neroiwv- W D ansqnel Attorney, Agent, or FirmCraig and Antonelli 5 7 ABSTRACT A An elevator control apparatus comprising a synchronizer movable at a reduced speed proportional to the running speed of an elevator car, an advancer ar ranged for advancing movement on the synchronizer within a predetermined range for detecting a floor originating a call, and means for determining the running speed of the elevator car depending on the position of the advancer, hence the position of the floor orginating the call, relative to the position of the synchronizer, hence the floor position of the elevator car, when the advancer moves and stops at the position corresponding to the floor from which the call is originated. In the elevator control apparatus, a preadvancer is additionally provided for making advancing movement within a range outside the movable range of the advancer for detecting another floor originating another call so that it can detect calls originating from the range which is outside the detectable range of the advancer.

5 Claims, 15 Drawing Figures June 4, 1974 PATENTEDJUH 4 I974 sum; 01 0F 13 SPEED PATENVEMM 4 m4 SHEE on or 13 FIIG.4

PATENTEDJUH 419M 331 4215 sum as or 13 PAIEIIIEIIIIIII 4 3.814.215

I sum- 13 or 13 -FIG.I5

4IXU4O 9OP 90 340A OSCILLATING 339A OSCILLATING ii UNIT 338A OSCILLATING UNIT 302A OSCILLATING UNIT BOIA OSCILLATING UNIT in all kinds of elevator systems. Broadly speaking, the

floor controller possesses three functions. It is the first function of the floor controller to detect a nearest serviceable call for an elevator car resting at one of the floors and to determine the running speed suitable for the service. It is the second function of the floor controller to deliver decelerating instructions andapply such instructions to an elevator car moving toward a floor in response to a call originated therefrom so that such elevator car can stop at the target floor. The third function includes display of the position of an elevator car, previous notification of the arriving floor and various other signal display controls.

In order that the floor controller can possess such functions, the floor controller is generally installed in the machinery room above the shaft and comprises essentially a synchronizer which makes vertical movement in synchronism with the movement of an elevator car and whose moving speed is reduced to about one one-hundredth of the running speed of the elevator car by a reduction gear unit, and an advancer which is advanced relative to the synchronizer in response to a call. The advancer is advanced to a position corresponding to a floor from which a call is originated, and upon arrival at such position, an engaging member is actuated to engage a stopper fixed to the frame of the floor controller for stopping the advancer at such position. Then, the elevator car, hence the synchronizer following the movement of the advancer catches up with the advancer. In the floor controller, the relative movement between the synchronizer and the advancer is utilized for controlling the acceleration and deceleration of the elevator car.

In the conventional floor controllerin which the advancer is advanced to a position corresponding to a floor from which a call is originated, an increase in the rated speed of the elevator car results inevitably in an increase in the running distance required for the elevator car to attain this highest speed. Therefore, the advancer must be previously advanced by a distance corresponding to the running distance of the running elevator car. Suppose, for example, that the elevator car is rated to run at a speed'of 540 meters per minute. In this case, the minimum running distance required for the elevator car to attain the speed of 540 meters per minute is of the order of 100 meters and this distance corresponds to the distance including about 30 floors of a building having floors vertically spaced apart by a pitch commonly employed in the art. Inasmuch as the elevator car makes vertical movement, the advancer must make its free advancing movement within a range which is twice the movable range thereof. Thus, the guide rail Iforthe advancer supported on the synchronizer must have a correspondingly large length and the size of the floor controller is increased correspondingly.

The floor controller is generally installed in the machinery room disposed above the shaft. The floor controller can be accommodated within the space limited by the ceiling of the machinery room when it is adapted for controlling an elevator car rated at a highest speed of the orderof 400 meters per minute, but its height is increased to such an extent that it extends above the ceiling level of the machinery room when the rated speed of the elevator car is increased beyond the above value. On the other hand, elevator cars rated at a higher speed are demanded and this demand provides a serious problem.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a small-sized elvator control apparatus or floor controller suitable for controlling a high-speed and high-lift elevator car.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a floor controller comprising a synchronizer movable at a reduced speed proportional to the running speed of an elevator car servicing a plurality of service floor landings, an advancer disposed on said synchronizer so as to be movable within a predetermined range from the position of said synchronizer for detecting a floor originating a call, a pre-advancer movable within a range outside the movable range of said advancer for detecting another floor originating another call, and means for determining the running mode of the elevator car depending on the position of said synchronizer relative to the position of the calloriginating floor detected by said pre-advancer or said advancer. The present invention having the feature above described is advantageous in that the size of the synchronizer and advancer, hence the overall size of the floor controller can be remarkably reduced and the floor controller can be accommodated within the machinery room with a large space margin even if it is adapted for controlling an elevator car operable with a high speed of the'order of 540 meters per minute.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a floor controller of the kind above described in which means for indicating calloriginating floors are disposed on the frame of the floor controller so that the deceleration pattern which cannot be obtained on the basis of the positional relation between said advancer and said synchronizer during running of the elevator car at a high speed can be produced on the basis of the positional relation between said synchronizer and said means disposed on the frame of said floor controller. The present invention having the above feature is advantageous in that the small-sized floor controller can satisfy the functional demands described previously. e

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view showing schematically the structure of a prior art floor controller for comparing same with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view showing the basic principle of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a floor controller embodying the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail view of parts of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view showing the arrangement of means for detecting the position of an advancer realtive to the position of a synchronizer in the floor controller according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view showing the arrangement of means for detecting the position of the synchronizer in the floor controller according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic view showing the structure of a zone position detector in the floor controller ac cording to the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows output waveforms of the zone position detector anda waveform converter and operation of a speed instruction relay in the floor controller according to the present invention;

FIG. 9 shows the arrangement of the synchronizer, advancer and accessories in the floor controller according to the present invention;

FIG. 10 is an electrical circuit diagram of a circuit for controlling speed instruction relays employed in the floor controller according to the present invention;

1 FIG. 11 is an electrical circuit diagram of a circuit for controlling deceleration instruction relays employed in the floor controller according to the present invention;

FIGS. 12 and 13 are electrical circuit diagrams of circuits for controlling floor relays employed in the floor controller according to the present invention;

FIG. 14 is an electrical circuit diagram of a circuit for controlling call detection relays employed in the floor controller according to the present invention; and

F IG. 15 is an electrical circuit diagram of a circuit for energizing oscillating units employed in the floor controller according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 showing schematically the structure of a prior art floor controller for controlling an elevator car operating with a highest speed of 360 meters per minute in a building having floors, a driving tape 1 is connected to the elevator car to be driven at a speed which is the same as the speed of the car. An output gear 2 of a reduction gear unit (not shown) is rotated at a reduced speed which is proportional to the running speed of the elevator car. A driving chain 4 is trained between the output gear 2 and an idler gear 3. A synchronizer 5 is vertically movably supported on a guide rail 6 and is driven by the driving chain 4 to make vertical movement at a reduced speed which is proportional to the running speed of the elevator car. Further, an advancer 7 is vertically movable on the synchronizer S. A guide rail 8 for guiding the vertical movement of the advancer 7 is supported by supporting means 9 extending from the synchronizer 5. Although not shown, a miniature motor is mounted on the synchronizer 5 for causing vertical movement of the advancer 7 in advanced relation with respect to the synchronizer 5.

Suppose now that the elevator car has moved upward from the 1st floor and is at rest at the l 3 t h floor. Due

to the fact that the synchroinzer 5 is moved in proportion to the movement of the elevator car, the synchronizer 5 is at rest with its central portion registering with the position corresponding to the 13th floor on the floor controller. (The numerals shown on the righthand side of F IG. 1 represent the floor numbers.) Thus, the syncrhonizer 5 occupies the position shown by the solid lines in FIG. 1. The advancer 7 has been at rest at the position corresponding to the 13th floor as shown by the broken lines until the elevator car, hence the synchronizer 5 movingupward from beneath stops at the 13th floor position. The reference numeral 7' designates such position of the advancer 7. When the elevator car moving upward stops at the 13th floor and the central portion of the synchronizer 5 registers with the advancer 7 resting at the position 7', the advancer 7 makes upward movement in a direction as shown by the arrow to be advanced relative to the synchronizer 5. The advancer 7 continues to move upward until it reaches a position corresponding to an upper floor from which a call is originated. Thus, when, for example, an up call shown by the symbol A is registered at the hall of the 21st floor, the advancer 7 moving upward stops at the position corresponding to the 21st floor. This means that the floor at which the elevator car should stop next is detected and this floor position is memorized. With the upward movement of the advancer 7, a detector on the advancer 7 detects successive detected elements disposed on the frame of the floor controller at positions corresponding to the floor positions, and means are provided for counting the number of the detected elements detected by the detector. This count represents the distance to be run next by the elevator car.

As is commonly known, the highest speed of an elevator car differs depending on the running distance, that is, the number of floors to be passed thereby. For example, an elevator car having an operating range of more than ten floors and rated at a highest speed of 360 meters per minute is accelerated to run with the speed of meters per minute, meters per minute and ISO meters per minute when it runs from, for example, the lst floor to the 2nd floor, 3rd floor and 4th floor respectively, and the highest speed of 360 meters per minute is developed only when the elevator car runs from, for example, the lst floor to a floor above and including the l lth floor without stopping at any intermediate floors. This is necessarily determined from the requirements including provision of a comfortable sense of ride for passengers and the distance required for acceleration and deceleration.

Suppose now that such an elevator car is controlled by the prior art floor controller shown in FIG. 1. In this case, the elevator car is instructed to run at a highest speed of 300 meters per minute due to the fact that the number of the elements detected by the detector on the advancer 7 is eight and the distance to be run by the elevator car is the range of from the 13th floor to the 2 lst floor. Thus, the first function of the floor controller is to detect the distance between the elevator car and the floor originating the call and to determine the highest speed at which the elevator car should run for reaching such floor.

The elevator car leaving the 13th floor is accelerated up to the speed of 300 meters per minute during its upward movement and is subsequently decelerated. In FIG. 1, the synchronizer 5 is now moved upward toward the advancer 7 which is at rest at the position shown by the solid lines. As is commonly known, the decelerating instruction signal is applied to the elevator car as a function of the position in order to minimize floor arrival errors. The curve shown at the left-hand side of FIG. 1 represents the deceleration pattern for the elevator car under the illustrated relation between the position of the advancer 7 and the position of the synchronizer 5 shown by the solid lines. The elevator car is gradually decelerated in the manner shown by the curve as a series of detectors 38 provided on the synchronizer 5 move past a detected element provided on the advancer 7. Consequently, the synchronizer 5, hence the elevator car is stopped when the synchronizer 5 is moved upward to the position at which the central portion of the synchronizer 5 registers with the advancer 7as seen from the deceleration pattern. (Actually, however, a position detector disposed in the shaft detects the physical position of the elevator car immediately before the elevator car is stopped so that the elevator car can be accurately stopped at the predetermined position.) Thus, the second function of the floor controller is to produce a deceleration pattern relative to the position of the elevator car. The synchronizer 5 may be utilized to serve also as a means such as an indicator indicating the position of the elevator car, but this isnot the essential function of the floor controller.

The general outline of the floor controller can be understood from the above description, but a serious problem as described below arises in recent years. Due to the tendency toward construction of skyscrapers in recent years, elevator cars for servicing a longer service range are required and a higher speedis necessarily demanded. It is quite natural that a long distance run results in the increase in the height of the floor controller. The floor controller shown in FIG. 1 differs from actual one since FIG. 1 is merely a schematic representation of the structure of the floor controller. Even if the pitch between the floors depicted in a reduced'scale in FIG.

, l were as illustrated, the floor controller would become Another problem arises fromthe fact that the in crease in the highest speedresults in the increase in the height of the floor controller. As will be seen from the example of'the prior art floor controller shown in FIG.

. l, the advancer 7 needn'ot detect calls within the range of from the l st to the25th floor andmay only detect 7 a call or calls originated from the range of from the 1st to the l Qth floor whenthe elevator car is-at rest atfthe lst floor. This isbecause the determination of the runhing speed of the elevator car is required only when the elevator car is instructed to run from, for example, the lst floor to the 10th or lower floor due to the fact that the elevator car is designed to develop its highest speed of 360 meters per minute only when it runs from, for example, the lst floor to the l lth or upper floor.

It may be seen from the above example that the floor number to which the advancer 7 should be advanced is inevitably increased when the highest speed of the elevator car exceeds 360 meters per minute. For example, when theel'evator carisdesigned to run at a highest speed of 540 meters per minute, this highest speed can only be developed whenthe elevator car runs from, for example, the lst floor to the 17th or upperfloor provided that the speedcan be increased at a rate of 30 meters per minute as the elevator car passes from one floor to another. Therefore, the running speed must be determined depending on the running distance when the elevator car services the range of less'than sixteen floors. Thus, the advancer 7 is requested to be capable of being advanced to the position beyond the position of the synchronizer 5 by the distance corresponding to 16 floors. One may easily seen from FIG. 1 that this results in a remarkable extension of the synchronizer 5 in the vertical direction and the height of the floor controller is remarkably increased to an extent that it is more than two times that designed for the highest speed of 360 meters per minute.

The present invention provides an improved floor controller having a remarkably reduced size. The basic principle of the presentinvention will be described at first with reference to FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 2, a pair of pre-advancers 42U and 42D are fixedly mounted on an advancer 7 so as to detect calls originated from the upper and lower floors than that detected by the advancer 7. The length of the arm of three pre-advancers 42U and 42D is determined so that the pre-advancers are movable over a range which is greater than the movable distance of the advancer 7. The advancer 7 in the prior art floor controller shown in FIG. 1 has had a limit in its movement such that it can only be advanced to the position corre sponding to the 11th floor when the synchronizer 5 is at rest at the position corresponding to the 1st floor. In

the present invention, the pre-advancer 42U moves with the movement of the advancer 7 to a position corresponding to the 12th or upper floor when the synchronizer 5 is at rest at the lst floor. The synchronizer 5 and advancer 7 in FIG. 2 are shown entirely the same as those shown in FIG. 1. I r

, Suppose now that the elevator car stands by at the lst floor and up calls are originated from the 4th and 19th floors. Due to the fact that the elevator car stands by at the lst floor, the synchronizer 5 occupies also the position corresponding to the lst floor on the floor controller. The advancer 7 having been standing at the lst floorstarts to move upward prior to the upward movement of the elevator car'so as to detect calls originated from the upper floors. Similarly, the pre-advancer 42U starts to detect calls from the upper floors includin the 12th floor. Since it is supposed that the callsCDandare only. originated from the 4th and 19th floors respectively, the advancer 7 detects the callbefore the preadvancer 42U detects the call@ Therefore, the ad- .vancer 7 stops at the position corresponding to the 4th fl2E1L99H9UF-.Tltl h -a nss sannot make upward movement any more and the callis not detected thereby. "In this manner, when a plurality of calls are originated and the advancer 7 detects one of the calls before the pre-advancers42U and 42D detect other calls, this call is the call which should be serviced by the elevator car at first, and the elevator car, hence the synchronizer 5 starts to move upward toward the advancer 7 which is at rest at the position corresponding to the floor from which this call is originated.

Consider next the case in which up callsandare originated from the 8th and 14th floors respectively. In such a case, the elevator car should move upward .toward the 8th floor at first, and after stopping at the 8th floor'and trying to detect other calls again, it should move upward toward the nearest upper floor from which a call is originated.

I Referring to FIG. 2 again, the advancer. 7 and preadvancer 42U and 42D move upward and the call@ originated from the 14th floor is first detected by the pre-advancer-42U, but the advancer 7 does not stop and continues to move upward. When the advancer 7 moving upward reaches the position corresponding to the 8th floor as shown by 7", the advancer 7 stops at such position by detecting the up calloriginated from the 8th floor. Circuit arrangement is such that any memory stored in a memory circuit due to previous detection of other calls by the pre-advancer 42U is erased when the advancer 7 detects a call as above described. Therefore, the elevator car starts to move upward -.toward1 thcasSth; flQOIeiflgffihfiA manner above described. tAfteristoppingr atithehrfithafloorrrtherelevathr eapstnts call detection again andiimbl/" tupwardefmmiit-helfih lfloo'rltidwardrasfloon frdmritehichfiaribtlier: oalliisleg'igiit am if thatifloorcan be solely detected. Thus, the deceleraw gith'ithethigh-speed)mperationorldpomdeteetloniofi an? 20 othenlcall bytthfiaddnfirrcernhstlie rrnmorystgredrinithe 3 memocynirhitrdueito the defectiomoficallsibythmplze- 1advanceirs542lrl: aridii42l3i is;nasedriwliiiil fortmeampld,

thmcalls@and@arenoniginatedrsolly l the lath 31 163165 ddesmotrdetecmhese ical-lsrerverl'iwhen itris adgancedrto raherupperahos'npnsjtidmoqathe'synohranizemialmsuch 3i ment fiitiestostheimacothat,vimtheapreseut lnventionathe deceleration pattern is also requiredyinothtrangeigbey youth the: leir'igtlrrrofqtliersynclaronizer@nlnntheipresent inu'ent ieimothrdecelerationbpattennpisnproducedxinsi Ihmniiln similan 1mm desc riihedilzithmefenenee liwhemthei spleedaofttheselevtaton semis tela ixfi yi laws lmalhigherrspeedrangeahomeven the dssireddeqelera;

Tionqmttern jstprndueedtbytthel eombinationtof at group ot'raddigonakdetectors-dispospdmn sthe'asynchronizetfi and a group of deteet'edielementsadisposedronrtheiqqnr trotleysfrafiiempqsitemthai etec ors-Me eipxemse y. rltlqtovthmfiaeh maths zde dsleratibmnattern tcwmegibe bliodqfiedrmmthubasisuflf ihfiaPQsititthal,sitelationlrbfir tween ghetsymhrmjzen andltlzte advaneer ilm bent bleuaitori smegma oyerrardistancmggeater ifihil rdhi dis tame aorfbsmnding'dmthe ilengtht-rof:thesynqhronizer 5, a group of detectors for gemngtlggtih dfifid iilim pattemuforitheahlghspeedu gperatimfi (lpt grdistafi :driving'iohainzql itormakei\eerticalnmcgvementnatt 1.

5 We rtiwhmovgrr ientmf;thes advancer sunnartingxmeans 9&X1endingf. sbm th ynch on ze 5 *tiompattermfornthe eleyatortcarcan be; produced .over allrthev speed ranget intspite ofi'theifactathat thesynchrQ- mizemszisismali in size-2mm: o1 iyxjilifiu {53m f .talmthe foizegoingdesoriptiomithenurnericalrvalues in:- cluding those ofxt'hesizesand speed aredmerely'givenlfor illustrative purposes for the ease of understanding and differ? fnomstheractualavaluesiiAmembodiment ofi'i he zipresent inventiomwillzbeidescribed iridetail'awith'refen- :efl'mtorfilGSzfiwtQi15am; Ki out 21% F165,

;.:is a;perspective.wziew of :one1form;.=of: the; floor sconttoller raccogdin'gs10 the rpriesenti-invcention Refer; eihg torlz lfiw aidr-ivmgitape' 11 isioonnec'tedz-toan clever toncar andisdriyenlat theisamempeedas tha Qfilhgtfil? .ev'atomarzrtAfit output-2 earrikof la' teductionsg anwnit ifimttshowm )ris otatedaat a ireducedspeedwhkh is prorpnrtionab-toatheitrimming speedsof; the deris on-cam er rdrivjngic'haimti is:ttttainedtbetweeniamidlengear ikand .thieiqutputsgearvla-Asynchroniqeoiis @UiCQHfi/QWQX? ablyssupportedzeomarguideaaibbz and. -istdriven boo s ducedtspeesi whiettisrpronortionakto runn ngi neeq refitheieie-vator eanzirana vancerfia s ve tie -l a/imo ablc @115rfiherfiynp iidn zfi:fiuflngl lgqWalla qn guid ng the its 1 .1 QPQUQL y 6212B adxangem'liisrsuspended tnqmrqneendtefia n Jill. which ,;stttainedramunda gnarl.m ns rous-lemma .bala'neaiyte-igh tis suspended rfl'ml' .JhQzQihQbfiQflfQfifll? chain 10. A motor 11 is mounted on the synchronizer 5nfen.z ausingiist tticalnmovem n r9 1th[OllghfirfifikzfliflbflfiUnit;(ifiq rfihfiw r urlAMzQSCillflIOhl2Zi =mO X IdDnr h' ynflhmm fz r .dfi fiqiinguihfi .RQQHQILJQ :thelsynchmni sni and (time :QQEYQEAI glSrm llllfid Qmthe synchroni er-51f detect in thetdecelera ingpmnt; Ehei sci ator llsonsist o 5a pairtoftiu.xtaposedoseillati.ng un tsd, an Ri I, e treceivemtlt;consis stof t zgr upstbttreceivingiunit Alfittaand Alfifiifontec ngtasigni lnur ngiupwa d movementiiandzdownwa dtmoxemenoof'ithmelsvatqr carrespectivelyl Atsol dnst te .miniatu e'iosc l ori in: d n l ad) .Q nIhQS Z' e ell .ngeun tsi 1215mm contiipuouslyrosc' ting w tln utra yamah QQh ingmnits 41,6. anrtltlfifir nithatsach r finin QHjiQLFQQeiM Ja s gnatrfr mtqne LQf latingvu itsitw des ribed laterandappl edi rsig alitq aso in ;sir u t only hemthereseivihgtpnit srepp sed b th o cillab 5 i121 qrmoumedl n h d at sat The,

-t 'for-. rleteetinsithernQs tiQmQf the adyat e r o d e sci a n A t, v de h nt a-ipair Q? imp V tinitdtlanda oweross lla ngs mtllwtzTheos l atoritztson js sp iasp iri ot st isa lysp c o lat n xi n fistizli g 42. 2Th seaqssillat n wnitsi92D?a d zflrazerflisiio gdiratlp siti ns y ttieallyispacedfrom fi'uflilti-f and anal 'io twain malt the oscillator 13 by a suitable distance so that they can advanced relative to the advancer 7 on the synchronizer 5.

A plurality of means 41XU, 4IXD, 14, and 42X are fixedly provided on the frame of the floor controller at a position corresponding to each of the floors serviced by the elevator car. The stationary means 14 consists of pairs of receiving units 14L and 14R arranged in two vertical series opposite to the respective oscillating units 12L and 12R, and each pair of these receiving units ML and MR are disposed at a position corresponding to each of the floors. However, the position of these receiving units 14L and MR is adjustable in the vertical direction. the Stationary means 15 and 42X represent receiving units disposed at a position corresponding to each of the floors. The stationary means 41XU and 4IXD represent oscillating units mounted on the controller frame opposite to the respective receiving units 41GU and 410D, and the number of these oscillating units is equal to the number of the floors. However, these oscillating units 41XU and 41XD are not disposed at the exact position corresponding to each of the floors and they are displaced downward and upward respectively relative to the exact floor position by a predetermined distance. Although only one set of lating units 41XU, 41XD and the receiving units 41GU,

41GD is such that'the oscillating unit 41XU is opposed by the receiving unit 4lGU at a predetermined point beneath each floor level when the elevator car is moving upward and the oscillating unit 41XD is opposed by the receiving unit 4lGD at a predetermined point above each floor level when the elevator car is moving downward, so that output signals appear successively from the receiving units 41GU and 4lGDdepending on the moving direction of the elevator car. Thus, these movable means and stationary means operate as a contactless position detecting means.

The movable means 13 and 42 provided on the advancer 7 are advanced beyond the actual position of the elevator car as the advancer 7 is driven by the motor 11, and the advancer 7 is stopped at the position corresponding to the floor from which a call is originated. The movable means 12 and 41 provided on the synchronizer 5 follow the movement of the movable means I3 and 42 with in suitably delayed relation. Further, contactless type relative position detecting means which will be described later are provided for detecting the difference between the relative positions of the advancer 7 and the synchronizer 5 arranged for vertical movement in synchronism with the movement of the elevator car.

A magnet 19 is mounted on the synchronizer 5. In response to the energization of the magnet 19, an armature 20 is attracted to the magnet 19 and makes pivotal movement around a pivot pin 21. As a result, an enlarged portion 22 of the armature 20 presses against abutment members 25 and 26 provided on cranks 23 33 are mounted on the bar 32 at positions corresponding to the actual floor levels serviced by the elevator .car, although only one of such stoppers 33 is shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view showing parts of FIG. 3 in detail, and parts bearing the same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. 3 have been already described. A mounting arm 35 extends horizontally from the advancer 7 and an oscillating unit 36 of a contactless switch is mounted on the mounting arm 35. A mounting plate 37 is fixed to the synchronizer 5 and a vertical series of receiving units 38 are mounted on the mounting plate 37 opposite to the oscillating unit 36.

The oscillating unit 36 and receiving units 38 are arranged in a manner as shown in FIG. 5 for detecting the distance D between the synchronizer 5 and the advancer 7. During upward movement of the elevator car, the oscillating unit 36 carried by the advancer 7 is advanced upward to the position corresponding to the floor from which a call is originated. Subsequently, the receiving units 38U 38U and 38U, carried by the synchronizer 5 are successively brought to the position opposite to the oscillating unit 36 with the upward movement of the synchronizer 5, and when the elevator car stops at the target floor, the oscillating unit 36 takes the neutral position C. During downward movement of the elevator car, the oscillating unit 36 carried by the advancer 7 is advanced downward, and subsequently,

the receiving untis 38D 38D and 38D carried by the synchronizer 5 are successively brought to the position opposite to the oscillating unit 36 with the downward movement of the synchronizer 5. The oscillating unit'36 and receiving units 38 constitute a relative position detecting means which detects the distance between the synchronizer 5 and the advancer 7 for generating a deceleration instruction signal. Receiving units 38UL and 38DL are disposed at the opposite extremities of the vertical advancing movement of the ad vancer 7 relative to the synchronizer 5 so that the oscil lating unit 36 can be opposite by these receiving units at such extreme positions.

FIG. 6 shows the arrangement of the oscillating untis 41XU, 41XD and receiving units 41GU, 41GD. The oscillating units 41XU and 41XD are mounted on the controller frame in the number equal to the number of the floors. One or ones of these oscillating units 41XU and 41XD oscillate only when a call or calls are originated from the corresponding floor or floors and the remaining oscillating units do not oscillate as will be described later. These oscillating units 4lXU and 4lXD are used to detect the relative positions between them and the synchronizer 5. When the elevator car is designed to run at a high rated speed of, for example, 540 meters per minute, a distance of about 50 meters is required for deceleration. Suppose that a 1:100 reduced scale is employed, then a deceleration distance of about 500 millimeters is required on the floor controller. This means that D in FIG. 5 must be larger than about 500 millimeters. Taking the vertical movement 1 1 into consideration, a distance of 2 X D is required at least at this distance amounts to about 1 meter at the least. This means that the guide rail 8 for the advancer -7 must have a larger length and the size of the floor controller is increased correspondingly. In the present invention, in order to eliminate the above drawback, D in FIG. is selected to be about one-half of D corresponding to the deceleration distance required for the elevator car rated at a high speed of, for example, 540 meters per minute, and the oscillating units 41XU, 4lXD and receiving units 4lGU, 41GD are utilized for compensating for the reduction of the distance D.

. Suppose now that the elevator car servicing 40 floor landings of a building stands by at the 1st floor and a '38U 3.8U are successively brought to the position opposite to the oscillating unit 36 in FIG. 5 thereby detecting the relative positions of the advancer 7 and the synghronizer 5, hence the elevator car. It will thus be seen that the deceleration pattern is produced by the combination of the oscillating units on the controller frame and the receiving units on the cynchronizer 5 in the range in which the elevator car is sufficiently remote from the target floor and is running at a high speed, while in the low speed range in which the elevator car approaches the zone relatively near the target floor, the deceleration pattern is produced by the combination of the oscillating unit on the advancer 7 and the receivingunits onthe synchronizer 5.

. Referring to FIG. 4, a shielding plate detector 39 is secured to the mounting arm35 extending from the advancer 7 to constitute a zoner position detector 44 together with shielding plates 43 arranged in a vertical series on a bar 40 extending vertically within the controller housing. The number of these shielding plates 43 is equal to the number of the floors of thebuilding although only two of them are shown in FIG. 4. Since the shielding plates 43 are disposed at positions corresponding to the floors, an output signal appears from the shielding plate detector 39 during the period of time in which the advancer 7 is present in the predetermined zone including the corresponding floor.

FIG. 7 shows schematically the structure of the zone position detector 44. In the state in which the shilding plate 43 is not inserted into the gap between a feedback coil L and an input coil L these coils L and L, are magnetically coupled and an output appears from an output coil L Thus, no output appears at an output terminal E(0) of a logic circuit 44L and an output appears at another output terminal C(0) of the logic circuit 44L. When the shielding plate 43 is inserted into the gap, the magnetic coupling between the coils L and L, is substantially lost and no output appears from the output coil L In this case, an output appears at the outputterminal E(0) and no output appears at the output terminal C(0).

FIG. 8 shows the output waveforms of the zone position detector 44 and of a waveform converter in a control circuit described later for generating a speed instruction signal in response to the application of the zone position detector output.

FIG. 9 shows the relation between the means for detecting the position of the synchronizer 5 relative to the position of the advancer 7 and means for generating such a deceleration instruction signal which cannot be obtained with the relative position detecting means depending on the relation between the shielding plate detector 39 and the shielding plates 43 and on the positional relation between the synchronizer 5 and the oscillating units 41XU and 41XD mounted on the frame of the floor controller. In FIG. 9, only those means associated with the upward movement are shown. The detection of the relative positions of the advancer 7 and the synchronizer 5 and the operation of the zone position detector 44 consisting of the shielding plate detector 39 and shielding plates 43 have been described already.

The receiving units 41GU to 41GU,, shown in FIG. 9 serve for giving a deceleration instruction signal during upward movement of the elevator car. In the present embodiment, for example, the receiving units 4lGU 41GU 41GU and 41GU are adapted to give the deceleration insturction signal for decelerating the speed of the elevator car from 450 m/min, 420 m/min, 390 m/min and 360 m/min respectively and are mounted on the synchronizer 5 at suitably spaced predetermined positions. These receiving units 41GU are disposed opposite to the oscillating units 41XU and the number of these receiving units 41GU is equal to the number of the floors. The receiving units 41GU used in the upward movment of the elevator car are displaced downward by a predetermined distance from the position corresponding to the floors of the building.

Suppose now that a call is originated from the 40th floor and the elevator car stands by at the 1st floor. Suppose further that the elevator car moving upward from the 1st floor while being accelerated toward the 40th floor in response to the call is running at a speed of 450 m/min. In response to the detection of the call bythe elevator-car, a circuit described later is ready for generating a deceleration instruction signal and the oscillating unit 41XU corresponding to the 40th floor is solely energized. During upward movement of the elevator car, a deceleration instruction signal for decelerating the speed of the elevator car to 420 m/min from 450 m/min is generated due to the fact that the receiving unit 41GU is brought to' the position opposite to the oscillating unit 41XU Then, the receiving unit 41GU is brought to the position opposite to the oscillating unit 41XU -and a deceleration instruction signal is generated for decelerating the speed to 390 m/min from 420 m/min. In this manner, the receiving units 4lGU 41GU 4lGU are successively brought to the position opposite to the oscillating unit 41XU corresponding to the 40th floor originating the call so that the speed of the elevator car is reduced to less than 360 m/min. When the advancer 7 is advanced to the position corresponding to the 40th floor, the magnet 19 is deenergized and the engaging member 29 engages the stopper 33 corresponding to the 40th floor thereby stopping the advancer 7 at the position corresponding to the 40th floor. Then, when the synchronizer 5 moves upward to reach the point at which the speed of the ele-

Claims (5)

1. An elevator control apparatus comprising a synchronizing movable at a reduced speed proportional to the running speed of an elevator car servicing a plurality of service floor landings, an advancer disposed on said synchronizer so as to be movable within a predetermined range from the position of said synchronizer for detecting a floor originating a call, a preadvancer movable within a range outside the movable range of said advancer for detecting another floor originating another call, and means for determining the running mode of the elevator car depending on the position of said synchronizer relative to the position of the call-originating floor detected by said preadvancer or said advancer.

2. An elevator control apparatus comprising means for indicating floors originating calls on a reduced scale representative of the service zone of an elevator car servicing a plurality of service floor landings, a synchronizer movable at a reduced speed proportional to the running speed of the elevator car, an advancer disposed on said synchronizer so as to be movable within a predetermined range from the position of said synchronizer, said advancer being capable of stopping at each of said indicated positions when it reaches such position, and means for determining the running mode of the elevator car depending on the position of said advancer relative to the position of said synchronizer when said advancer stops at said indicated position, wherein the improvement comprises a pre-advancer disposed on said advancer so as to be movable with said advancer within a range outside the movable range of said advancer, means for memorizing each said indicated position when said pre-advancer reaches such position, and means for determining the running mode of the elevator car depending on the relation between said memorized position and the position of said synchronizer when said advancer has moved to the limit of its movable range.

3. An elevator control apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein means are provided for erasing the memory of all the previously memorized positions wHen said advancer reaches one of said indicated positions within the movable range thereof.

4. An elevator control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a plurality of detecting means disposed on said synchronizer for delivering individual different speed instruction signals to provide a predetermined deceleration pattern, first detected means disposed on said advancer for indicating the floor within a predetermined range out of the floors originating calls, second detected means disposed on the apparatus frame for indicating the remaining floors originating calls, and means for generating a deceleration instruction signal in response to the detection of said second detected means by said detecting means when the elevator car is running at a high speed and in response to the detection of said first detected means by said detecting means when the elevator car is running at a low speed.

5. An elevator control apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said first detected means and those detecting means generating the deceleration instruction signal when the running speed of the elevator car is low are disposed at positions corresponding to the floor positions in said service zone of reduced scale, while said second detected means and those detecting means generating the deceleration instruction signal when the running speed of the elevator car is high are disposed at positions predeterminedly displaced from the floor positions in said service zone of reduced scale.

Images