Elevator Door System Parts
Elevator doors are one of the most used and mistreated components in an elevator. Riders pry them open, stop them from closing to allow additional passengers, prop them open when loading and unloading cargo, and bang up against them with luggage and carts.
Having a regular maintenance plan is the best way to ensure that your elevator door system will stay in good condition and keep giving you great service for years. Here are some of the parts that make up an elevator door system.
Motor
The motor is the main component of the Elevator Door System and is responsible for moving the doors. It also collects data that can be analyzed in the future.
The motors in the elevators are designed to move the doors smoothly and safely. They are made of a metal armature and are attached to a rotor.
They work by rotating the rotor in the same direction as the magnetic field. This makes it difficult for the motor to align and jam.
Another feature of the motor is that it has a small air gap between its rotor and stator. The air gap has a big effect on the electrical characteristics of a motor, including its power factor.
This makes it important to choose a motor with a wide gap. This will help keep the power factor high, which is important for the motor’s performance.
The motor is usually a brushless DC flat motor that can be used to move doors up to 400 kilograms. It is available in two power levels and uses a belt drive or a direct drive.
Encoders
Encoders are used to monitor elevator door motors to ensure that the doors open and close fully. They need to be hollow-bore designs and compact enough to fit in the allotted space on the elevator car.
Modern cable-bound elevators require fast and precise opening and closing of the door to transport passengers with minimal noise. This requires servo-controlled door motors that are driven by compact rotary encoders.
HEIDENHAIN, AMO, and RENCO provide encoders that allow an elevator car to start gently, stop at the right height, quickly open and close its doors, and speed off again all while meeting the highest safety standards.
In addition, these encoders help prevent a malfunctioning motor from being damaged or overloaded by delivering feedback that lets the control system know when the motor is out of position or running too fast. This can lead to high power consumption, overheating, and even mechanical failure.
Elevator door systems are complex and involve many moving parts. It is important that these parts are properly maintained to prevent breakdowns and keep passengers safe.
Gears
Gears help to change the speed of a motorized device, which helps to reduce the load on the motor. There are a few different types of gears, including spur gears, bevel gears, and screw gears.
The type of configuration in which a gear is connected to a shaft determines whether it produces a directional change (changing the direction of rotation or the axis of motion). Some types of gears, like spur gears, employ the parallel configuration; others, like bevel gears, use an intersecting configuration.
Bevel gears: One of the most common types of gears, bevel gears transmit power between two shafts whose axes intersect. They have slanted teeth that make the shape of their “pitch diameter” a cone.
This means that two bevel gears can mesh, which allows them to transfer power from one shaft to another without causing the shaft to rotate in any way. To do this, both bevel gears must have the same pitch circle and a tangent line to each tooth that meets the pitch circle at the same point.
A bevel gear can also have curved teeth to make the contact surface larger at a given time. This can help to provide a gradual engagement, which can improve the performance of an elevator.
Rollers
Rollers are a critical part of the elevator door system, as they help to move the doors along a track. However, over time, the rollers may become worn and need Elevator Door System Parts to be replaced. This can cause problems with the elevator doors, which will not open and close evenly.
One way to solve this problem is by providing a thermal barrier between the rollers and the rail. This can reduce heat transfer from the rail to the tire material and prevent premature wear.
This can be done in several ways. One option is to provide a flexible insert that includes several different pieces. Each of these pieces can be made from a different material to achieve different friction characteristics.
Another option is to use a knurled surface for increased traction between the roller and the track. This can also reduce the amount of noise that the rollers produce as they travel along the track.
A third option is to include a central portion of the track that provides a smoother surface. This can be done in various ways, including by spraying the track with a resilient material.
This can allow for quieter operation of the elevator doors as they move along the track. It can also ensure Elevator Door System Parts that the doors do not make any scratches on the interior of the elevator car as they slide along the tracks.
Cables
Elevator cables are made of steel material that are wound around one another. They rarely snap but can get damaged if they are caught on something. This can cause the elevator to fall.
Fortunately, elevator cables are designed to resist breaking, and they are typically inspected often. However, they can be affected by wind and earthquake-induced building oscillations that can cause them to shorten or tangle.
To limit the effects of these oscillations, elevator shaft walls are often covered with fixed guides. These guides help prevent cable movement and allow the hoisting cables to be retracted.
In this way, the elevator can be moved safely and smoothly without causing damage to the elevator or other parts of the building. On the other hand, this method also requires that the elevator be lowered before the cables can be retracted, which is not always convenient for passengers.
To avoid this problem, limiting member 40 is movable between an extended position that is vertically proximate the centrally mounted hoist cable 34 in its free hanging state and a retracted position away from the cable 34 and vertically out of line with the elevator car 32. This limiting member is usually retracted before the cables are able to contact the member, which reduces friction between the moving cables and the limiting member.
Limit Switches
Limit switches are used to detect preset limits in a wide range of industrial applications. They detect when a set level has been reached, such as the height of an elevator or the speed at which a conveyor belt moves.
They work by detecting the presence of a material or object and moving an actuator, which in turn changes the state of an electrical circuit. They’re also a great way to prevent hazardous chemicals from damaging equipment in harsh environments.
The switch is made up of an actuator with an operating head, a switch body mechanism and a series of electrical terminals that connect the switch to the electrical circuit it controls. The operating head transmits a linear, perpendicular or rotary motion to the actuator that then translates it to close or open the switch.
Mechanical limit switches are electromechanical devices that use arms, levers, knobs, plungers or other actuators to make physical contact with a target. The switch’s contacts either make or break connections depending on the position of the switch’s contact orientation. They’re subject to wear but are often manufactured as extremely rugged devices to compensate for this. They also have high current switching capability (typically up to 10 A) and excellent environmental resilience.
Safety Devices
Safety devices are an important part of any elevator’s system. They monitor things like car speed and position, door-lock state, and more to prevent accidents from happening in the elevator.
Elevator overspeed governors are safety devices that limit the speed of an elevator car to protect passengers. They work by looping a rope around a sheave at the top of the elevator shaft and a weighted sheave at the bottom.
When the elevator’s car exceeds its normal speed, the rope is pulled up and down by centrifugal force. This forces the governor’s grips against the guide rails, stopping the elevator car.
There are many types of safety devices in an elevator, including light curtains and laser scanners. These safety systems use sensors and beams of light to create invisible barriers around hazards that only allow the right amount of movement to pass through them without triggering an alarm.
Both are very effective safeguarding solutions for a variety of areas and are easy to install in washdown environments. In addition, they both have muting features so that if the sensor is tripped for any reason, the hazard is automatically shut off and the user is free to continue working.
