Elevator Door System Parts
There are a lot of moving parts involved in elevator doors, and they require regular maintenance and adjustments to maintain optimal performance. Elevator systems that do not properly align their doors can be susceptible to shutdowns and entrapments.
For this reason, it is important to keep all door system parts up and running properly. In this article we’ll go over some of the most common parts of an elevator door system and how they work together to keep your passengers safe.
1. Gears
Gears are very important in the elevator door system because they help control the movement of the elevator car. They provide a smoother, more efficient ride, and they can help reduce wear and tear on the elevator cables.
One of the most common types of gears is a worm gear. These gears are made of steel and have teeth that are shaped to fit the diameter of a shaft. They can be used for either vertical or horizontal traction and are designed to lock up when motion stops.
A worm gear can help reduce the amount of power needed for the elevator car to move up and down. This helps reduce the wear and tear on the elevator’s cable systems and can also make it safer to use.
Another type of gear is a speed-regulating system called a governor. These can be mechanical, electromagnetic, or a combination of both. When the elevator moves too fast, the governor’s arms will fly outward, pushing a lever mechanism that may trip a brake mechanism.
If the braking mechanisms fail, the lift will fall, and it can cause injuries to passengers. This is why many elevators have a speed-regulating system.
Encoders provide feedback to the automatic doors in Elevator Door System Parts an elevator car. They monitor the movement of these doors and ensure that they fully open and close before closing them again.
In addition, they may monitor the amount of weight being carried in an elevator car to prevent excess load from overheating the elevator or causing damage. They may also trigger a voice prompt or buzzer alarm when too much weight has been loaded.
The final part of the elevator door system is the motor, which actuates the doors. This can be a small DC or AC motor that’s mounted on top of the elevator car.
2. Rollers
Rollers are a key component of the elevator door system and must be maintained to ensure they perform properly. They work very hard and are susceptible to wear and tear over time. This is why it is important to have them inspected and replaced regularly.
The elevator door has rollers at the bottom that move along a track to open and close the car. If these rollers are worn or broken they can cause the doors to bind together and not open or close properly.
There are also a lot of other moving parts on an elevator door so it is crucial that the equipment is inspected regularly to avoid breakdowns and to make sure everything is in good working order. A technician will be able to check all these parts for any issues and can make the necessary adjustments to get your elevator working properly again.
Another key part of the elevator door system is the motors that drive them. They can be a pain to keep up with and often require replacing every few years so it is vital that they are well maintained.
One of the advantages of the motors is that they can be easily replaced, which means that you don’t have to worry about a faulty unit causing the elevator to shut down. This is especially true for low range door systems that may employ only a single motor.
The motors also allow for easier modernization of the elevator door system by replacing standard rollers with motors. This is an excellent way to keep up with modern technology and avoid outdated parts from falling out of favor. This is especially important for a large building that has many elevators.
3. Cables
Elevator cables are a very important component of the elevator door system, because they control the movement of an elevator car up and down. These cables are suspended above the hoist-way, with a sheave that pulls them up and a counterweight that pulls them down, all powered by an electric motor or another mechanical device that directs the elevator cab up and down.
Cables can be prone to damage and shortening due to their movement up and down the shaft as the cab moves. In addition, they can be subjected to oscillations which are produced by a variety of energy inputs within the elevator shaft.
In some elevator systems, a damper is positioned near the hoisting end of a hoisting cable to convert lateral oscillations into twisting motions. In other systems, a fixed guide is positioned at the midpoint of the hoisting cable to limit lateral oscillations.
However, these systems may not be effective in controlling the lateral oscillations of cables that are laterally supported at either end of the shaft. In particular, it can be shown that a support near the middle of the shaft doubles the natural frequency of the cable’s lateral vibrations, while supports near the ends of the shaft triple the natural frequency.
This problem can be greatly reduced by providing a temporary lateral support at intermediate points on the shaft, thus minimizing the free length of the cable. In accordance with this embodiment, a semaphore-type cable limiting member is swingably mounted by means of bracket 41 to a wall 31 of the elevator shaft 33 at a predetermined vertical location therein.
A controller 38 controls actuator 52 to move the limiting member 40 from its retracted position to its extended position, depending upon whether or not a predetermined condition is met. Such a condition preferably includes at least the existence of sufficient clearance between the limiting member 40 and the elevator equipment to prevent contact between them under normal operating conditions.
4. Brakes
Brakes are one of the most important parts of an elevator, and they play a huge role in keeping people safe. They are responsible for preventing car overspeed and unintended car movement Elevator Door System Parts when the elevator door is open, which can lead to death or serious injury.
The brakes on residential and commercial lifts have pads or discs that surround the motor shaft, which prevents it from turning when a voltage is applied to the brake solenoid coil. During power outages, the motor brakes are engaged so that the elevator doesn’t move until power is restored.
For emergency braking, a rescue braking system is available that will mechanically lift or apply the brakes with a brake release cable. This allows passengers trapped in an elevator to be rescued without the jerky movement that is caused by fully on-off braking systems.
An enable device 116 issues an enable signal that is interpreted by a rescue braking control 100. The rescue brake control 100 has a brake release linkage coupled to an actuator, which operates the brake release linkage to mechanically engage and disengage an elevator brake 14 as needed.
A motion control 108 is also part of the rescue braking system and responds to at least the enable signal, causing the actuator to incrementally adjust force applied by the brake release linkage. This can be done by manually adjusting the force by the rescuer or automatically by the motion control 108.
A brake release monitoring system is also available that provides an indicator to tell the rescuer how much power is left in the movement of the elevator. This can help the rescuer determine if the elevator is moving quickly enough to require a rescue.
5. Locks
Locks are a crucial part of the elevator door system and play an important role in preventing elevator robbery, theft and vandalism. They’re also a safety device that helps protect people from falling off an elevator.
Elevator locks are made from a variety of materials including solid steel, case hardened steel and aluminum. They come in a variety of sizes and styles to suit any building’s needs.
The main component of an elevator lock is the cylinder. Cylinders are usually made from stainless steel and are often chrome plated to help resist corrosion.
They can be equipped with a locking bar or a roller arm assembly. The cylinder and the bar are mounted in the lock housing, which is located in the hoist-way of an elevator. The cylinder is attached to the lock shaft by a cam that rotates when the elevator stops at a floor. The cylinder and the bar are then mechanically pushed together to open the contact.
This contact is wired in series with all of the other door switches in the elevator’s hoist-way and the electrical control circuit of the elevator so as to produce an overall electrical safety loop. The HG-2 interlock is used with a retiring cam and has two contacts: one is the door closed contact, and the other is the door locked contact.
A faulty or bypassed door contact circuit will not allow the elevator to run and power will be removed from the system until it’s fixed. This is known as a Door Lock Monitoring system and many elevators installed after 2015 are already compliant with this new code requirement.