Apparatus and method for monitoring elevator shaft doors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9248993-B2
Application number	US-201213627389-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2012
Priority date	Sep 29, 2011
Publication date	Feb 2, 2016
Grant date	Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

An elevator installation has at least one shaft door and a monitoring device for monitoring movements for opening the shaft door, the monitoring device has a first, energy-autonomous counting device for counting the movements, which independently of an intact power supply increments a first count value in the case of one of these movements, and a second counting device for counting the movements, which when the power supply is intact increments a second count value in the case of one of these movements, and a comparison circuit which calls up and compares the first and second count values and can generate a signal based on the comparison of the count values.

First claim

I claim:

1. An elevator installation, comprising:
a shaft door; and
a monitoring device for monitoring the shaft door, the monitoring device comprising,
a first counting device, the first counting device being energy-autonomous and being configured to increment a first counter in response to movements of the shaft door and independently of an elevator installation power supply,
a second counting device, the second counting device being configured to increment a second counter in response to the movements of the shaft door when the elevator installation power supply is operating, and
a comparison circuit coupled to the first and second counters, the comparison circuit configured to determine if the increments of the first counter agree or differ with the increments of the second counter; and
whereas an agreement or a difference of the increments of the first and second counters is configured to indicate whether or not the shaft door was moved during an interruption of the elevator installation power supply.

2. The elevator installation of claim 1 , the first counting device comprising a sensor arrangement, the sensor arrangement comprising a permanent magnet and an induction unit, the permanent magnet and the induction unit being arranged at the shaft door such that a change of relative position of the permanent magnet and the induction unit, as a result of the movements of the shaft door, increments the first counter.

3. The elevator installation of claim 2 , the permanent magnet being arranged on a first part of the shaft door, the induction unit being arranged on a second part of the shaft door, the first and second parts of the shaft door moving relative to each other during the movements of the shaft door.

4. The elevator installation of claim 2 , the first counting device further comprising a non-volatile counting and memory circuit that can, from a voltage-free state, be activated and operated by a voltage pulse.

5. The elevator installation of claim 4 , the second counter being incremented by the voltage pulse when the elevator installation power supply is operating.

6. The elevator installation of claim 2 , the induction unit comprising a ferromagnetic element and an induction coil.

7. The elevator installation of claim 6 , the ferromagnetic element comprising a Wiegand wire or a pulse wire.

8. The elevator installation of claim 1 , the second counting device comprising a non-volatile counting and memory circuit.

9. The elevator installation of claim 1 , the second counting device comprising:
a current circuit, the current circuit being closed when the shaft door is closed; and
a voltage detector, wherein the voltage detector can interrupt the current circuit and increment the second counter when the elevator installation power supply is operating.

10. The elevator installation of claim 9 , the current circuit being acted on by a basic voltage when the elevator installation power supply is operating.

11. The elevator installation of claim 9 , the voltage detector being configured to generate a count pulse when a voltage threshold value is exceeded, the count pulse incrementing the second counter.

12. The elevator installation of claim 9 , the shaft door comprising a locking device, the locking device comprising first and second locking device parts, the first and second locking device parts being movable relative to each other, a contact point being arranged between the first and second locking device parts.

13. An elevator installation method, comprising:
opening a shaft door of an elevator installation;
in response to the opening the shaft door, incrementing at least one of a first counting device for monitoring the shaft door and a second counting device for monitoring the shaft door, the first counting device being configured to operate independently of a power supply, the second counting device being configured to operate dependent on the power supply;
comparing values stored in the first and second counting devices; and
using the comparison of the values to determine if the increments of the first counter agree or differ with the increments of the second counter, and whereas an agreement or a difference of the increments of the first and second counters is configured to indicate whether or not the shaft door was moved during an interruption of the power supply.

14. The elevator installation method of claim 13 , further comprising requesting that the values stored in the first and second counting devices be sent to a comparison circuit.

15. The elevator installation method of claim 14 , the value stored in the first counting device being associated with a first point in time, the value stored in the second counting device being associated with a second point in time, the shaft door being closed between the first and second points in time.

16. The elevator installation method of claim 13 , further comprising generating a non-correspondence signal if the values stored in the first and second counting devices are different.

17. The elevator installation method of claim 16 , further comprising triggering an alarm signal as a result of determining that the values stored in the first and second counting devices are different.

18. An elevator shaft door monitoring device, comprising:
a first counting device, the first counting device being energy-autonomous and being configured to increment a first counter in response to movements of a shaft door and independently of a power supply;
a second counting device, the second counting device being configured to increment a second counter in response to the movements of the shaft door when the power supply is operating; and
a comparison device coupled to the first and second counters, the comparison device configured to determine if the increments of the first counter agree or differ with the increments of the second counter, and
whereas an agreement or a difference of the increments of the first and second counters is configured to indicate whether or not the shaft door was moved during an interruption of the power supply.

Assignees

• Inventio Ag

Inventors

• Studer Christian

Classifications

• B66B13/22

  Operation of door or gate contacts · CPC title

• B66B5/005 Primary

  Safety of maintenance personnel · CPC title