Belt with guide elements
AssigneeOtis Elevator Company
InventorsBrad Guilani, Richard N. Fargo, Daniel A. Mosher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A belt for an elevator system including a plurality of tension members arranged along a belt width and a jacket material at least partially encapsulating the plurality of tension members defining a traction surface interactive with a traction sheave of an elevator system and a back surface opposite the traction surface. The back surface includes a belt guide feature extending along a belt length and interactive with a complimentary guide sheave feature of a guide sheave of the elevator system to orient the belt to a selected location during operation of the elevator system.
Claims13
A belt for an elevator system comprising:
- a plurality of tension members arranged along a belt width;
- and
- a jacket material at least partially encapsulating the plurality of tension members defining:
- a traction surface interactive with a traction sheave of an elevator system;
- and
- a back surface opposite the traction surface, the back surface including a plurality of belt guide features arrayed across a width of the belt and extending along a belt length and interactive with a complimentary guide sheave feature of a guide sheave of the elevator system to orient the belt to a selected location during operation of the elevator system, the plurality of belt guide features disposed along the belt width between adjacent tension members of the plurality of tension members, wherein at least one belt guide feature of the plurality of belt guide features is a convex arc feature protruding outwardly from the back surface;
- wherein the traction surface is flat.
An elevator system comprising:
- a hoistway;
- an elevator car disposed in the hoistway and movable along the hoistway;
- a traction sheave with flat traction surfaces;
- and
- a belt operably connected to the traction sheave and the elevator car to move the elevator car along the hoistway, the belt including:
- a plurality of tension members arranged along a belt width;
- and
- a jacket material at least partially encapsulating the plurality of tension members defining:
- a traction surface interactive with the flat traction sheave;
- and
- a back surface opposite the traction surface, the back surface including a plurality of belt guide features arrayed across a belt width and extending along a belt length and interactive with a complimentary guide sheave feature of a guide sheave of the elevator system to orient the belt to a selected location during operation of the elevator system, the plurality of belt guide features disposed along the belt width between adjacent tension members of the plurality of tension members, wherein the at least one belt guide feature of the plurality of belt guide features is a convex arc feature protruding outwardly from the back surface;
- wherein the traction surface is flat.
An elevator system comprising:
- a hoistway;
- an elevator car disposed in the hoistway and movable along the hoistway;
- a traction sheave with flat traction surfaces;
- and
- a belt operably connected to the traction sheave and the elevator car to move the elevator car along the hoistway, the belt including:
- a plurality of tension members arranged along a belt width;
- and
- a jacket material at least partially encapsulating the plurality of tension members defining:
- a traction surface interactive with the flat traction sheave;
- and
- a back surface opposite the traction surface, the back surface including a belt guide feature extending along a belt length and interactive with a complimentary guide sheave feature of a guide sheave of the elevator system to orient the belt to a selected location during operation of the elevator system wherein a distance between the guide sheave and the traction sheave is in the range of 0.2 times and 2.0 times a traction sheave diameter;
- wherein the traction surface is flat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.