Brake lining monitoring system
AssigneeOtis Gesellschaft M.B.H.
InventorChan-Jong Park
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A brake (200) comprising a braking surface (202); a brake lever (206) arranged to move between a retracted position and an engaged position; a brake lining (210) and at least one non-contact sensor (212). The brake lining is disposed between the braking surface and the brake lever such that when the brake lever is in the engaged position the brake lining is in contact with the braking surface. The at least one non-contact sensor is arranged to output a signal dependent on the distance between the non-contact sensor and the braking surface.
Claims11
A brake of one of an escalator, a moving walkway or an elevator system, the brake comprising:
- a braking surface;
- a brake lever arranged to move between a retracted position and an engaged position;
- a brake lining disposed between the braking surface and the brake lever such that when the brake lever is in the engaged position the brake lining is in contact with the braking surface;
- and
- at least one non-contact sensor;
- wherein the at least one non-contact sensor is a magnetic sensor arranged to detect the strength of a magnetic field between the sensor and the braking surface, and to output a signal dependent on the distance between the non-contact sensor and the braking surface;
- and
- a controller arranged to receive the signal from the at least one non-contact sensor and calculate a thickness of the brake lining from the received signal;
- wherein the controller is arranged to predict a replacement time for the brake lining based on a plurality of measurements of the signal from the at least one non-contact sensor.
A brake of one of an escalator, a moving walkway or an elevator system, the brake comprising:
- a braking surface;
- a brake lever arranged to move between a retracted position and an engaged position;
- a brake lining disposed between the braking surface and the brake lever such that when the brake lever is in the engaged position the brake lining is in contact with the braking surface;
- and
- at least one non-contact sensor;
- wherein the at least one non-contact sensor is a magnetic sensor arranged to detect the strength of a magnetic field between the sensor and the braking surface, and to output a signal dependent on the distance between the non-contact sensor and the braking surface;
- and
- a controller arranged to receive the signal from the at least one non-contact sensor and calculate a thickness of the brake lining from the received signal;
- wherein the controller is arranged to generate a mathematical regression model from a plurality of measurements of the signal from the at least one non-contact sensor and to use said model to predict a replacement time for the brake lining.
A method for monitoring a brake lining of one of an escalator, a moving walkway or an elevator system, the method comprising:
- obtaining a signal from a non-contact sensor disposed on one side of the brake lining, the signal dependent on the distance between the non-contact sensor and a braking surface disposed on the other side of the brake lining;
- and
- determining the state of the brake lining based on said signal;
- and
- calculating a thickness of the brake lining from the received signal;
- obtaining a plurality of measurements from the signal from the non-contact sensor;
- and
- predicting from said plurality of measurements a replacement time for the brake lining;
- wherein the non-contact sensor is a magnetic sensor arranged to detect the strength of a magnetic field between the sensor and the braking surface and outputs a signal dependent on the distance between the non-contact sensor and the braking surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.