Safety brake arrangement for elevators

A safety brake arrangement for an elevator which comprises an elevator car moving on an elevator guide rail up and down an elevator shaft, comprising a safety brake mounted on the car and operable to engage the guide rail to prevent movement of the car relative to the guide rail, and a safety brake automatic operating mechanism comprising an endless rope or belt mounted so as to extend along the elevator shaft, a linkage mounted on the elevator car and connected to the endless rope so that as the elevator car moves up and down the endless rope is also caused to move up and down, and a governor driven in rotation by the movement of the endless rope, the linkage also being operatively connected to the safety brake, whereby overspeeding of the elevator car causes corresponding overspeeding of the endless rope and of the governor, causing the governor to operate thereby stopping the endless rope and tripping the linkage to operate the safety brake, characterized by the provision of a safety brake including a pair of double wedge members disposed respectively on opposite sides of the guide rail and wherein each double wedge member includes a pair of wedge surfaces, one surfaces shaped for preventing overspeeding in the upward direction and the other surface shaped for preventing speeding in the downward direction, and a linkage moveable between a neutral state in which the linkage pulls the endless rope, a first tripped state in which the linkage operates the safety brake to prevent overspeeding in the downward direction, and a second tripped state in which the linkage operates to prevent overspeeding in the upward direction.