Elevator Car Passenger Security System

This invention relates to an elevator control system modification for insuring delivery of an elevator car passenger to his registered destination without stopping of the car at calls registered by intending passengers at intervening landings, which, in the normal unmodified operation of the control system, would stop the car at such landings.

It is common practice for an elevator car to stop, receive passengers at and cancel any calls registered by passengers at landings (landing calls) which are for its direction of travel and which are between the pickup and destination landings of a car passenger. This applies both to "collective" elevators, widely furnished for apartment service, and to elevators in high-rise groups in commerical structures. It is also common practice in attended elevators to provide a non-stop operation which permits the attendant, by holding a special "by-pass" button pressed, to prevent stop initiation for landing calls, within the attendant's discretion. It is further known in sophisticated elevator group control systems to by-pass landing calls automatically in order to expedite arrival of the elevator at a special status landing call or at a dispatch terminal. In addition, it is known in the art to provide express service from certain floors to other floors and to provide special service, such as in a hospital or in an emergency, which causes the car to act only under control of the car buttons. However, it is usual in all these cases, either for the floors receiving such service to be designated in advance or for the institution of the service and resumption of the service to landing calls to require manual operation of a special switch other than a switch normally used by a passenger to select the floor of destination. In the latter case, the special switch is not normally available to anyone except a car attendant or certain designated persons, such as supervisors.

It is not uncommon for a person intending to perform an assault, such as a robber, to station himself at an unattended landing, such as a landing other than the lobby floor or landing, and to press the landing button in the expectation that an ascending or descending elevator car will carry a passenger or passengers upon whom the assault can be performed. This is particularly true late at night in apartments or after business hours in office buildings when landing calls above the lobby landing are relatively few. At such times, it is possible to give preference to calls registered by passengers in the car (car calls) without a substantial decrease in service to passengers at landings, but the service to such latter passengers should be resumed automatically and as soon as car calls are no longer registered. By causing an elevator car to first carry out delivery of a passenger in a car to the landing designated by such passenger, stopping of the car and opening of its doors at intervening landings where an assailant may be present is avoided.

It is an object of this invention to detect existence of a call, or calls, registered from within an elevator (car calls) and to automatically prevent, during existance of that call, or calls, any service by that car to calls registered by passengers at landings and to automatically restore service to such landings subsequent to delivery of the car passenger and cancellation of such calls registered within the car.

It is a further object of the invention to afford a passenger in an elevator the security of uninterrupted travel to his destination, during periods when traffic demand does not dictate use of the normal collective operation.

In the system of the invention, an elevator which normally "collects", or stops at, landing calls registered for its direction of travel is modified to forego such collective action while a car call exists. While such a car call is in registration, stopping for landing calls is prevented. The time period elected for the modification to be effective would normally be late evening and night hours, at which times traffic is anticipated to be intermittent and security for the passenger in the car outweighs any inconvenience to the intending passenger at a landing.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description of the preferred embodiments thereof, which description should be considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a simplified, schematic wiring diagram illustrating the modification of certain circuits of the elevator control system illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,501 required to provide the results of the invention; and

FIG. 2 is similar to FIG. 1 and shows an alternate arrangement for providing the results of the invention.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the control system of the invention may be used with various types of dispatching and control systems now used in the art including control systems for single elevator car installations. For purposes of simplification, the invention will be described by reference to, and operation in conjunction with, the system of control described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,501. It will be understood, however, that the description of the invention in conjunction with the control system of said patent is merely for purposes of illustration.

In the description hereinafter given, it will be assumed that the elevator system comprises the circuits, controls, mechanisms, etc. set forth in said U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,501 modified as set forth hereinafter to include the circuits and controls of the present invention. Accordingly, the description of the operation of the system set forth in said U.S Pat. No. 3,314,501 will not be repeated herein, and the description and drawing will herein be limited to the modifications of the system set forth in said U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,501 required to adapt my present invention thereto and to certain portions of the system of said U.S. Pat No. 3,314,501 with which the modifications co-operate. For convenience, the symbols, diagram conventions, etc. employed in said U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,501, will be used herein.

Switches employed in the preferred embodiment disclosed in FIG. 1 and not shown in said U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,501 are as follows:

Hcka-- Control modifying switching relay

Ohksa-- Manually operable selection switch

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, switdh OHKSa is a double pole switch and contacts CK5a and CK6a have been added to switching relay CKa of U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,501.

A three car elevator group is given as a specific example in said U.S Pat. No. 3,314,501, and in the preferred embodiment described herein, it will be assumed that a three car elevator group is also involved. However, for the purpose of simplifying the disclosure, the operation of only the switches and circuits for a car a will be fully described, it being understood that, if desired, similar controls and circuits may be provided for cars b and c of the three car group. Of course, it will also be understood that the invention may be used in an installation having a single car, two cars or a number of cars greater than three, the invention being applied to the operation of any one or more cars.

Circuits and components shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, other than those identified hereinbefore as being added, are shown in FIG. 1, and described in the specification, of said U.S Pat. No. 3,314,501.

In the elevator system described in said U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,501, there are switches at each landing which are manually operable by intending passengers at the landings to register demands for service (landing calls). In addition, there are manually operable switches in each car corresponding to the landings which the car services to permit passengers in the car to register demands for service (car calls). Normally, each car is dispatched from a dispatching landing and during its trip in one direction, ascending or descending, the car responds to each call, both car and landing, registered for service in the direction established for the car movement. Thus, for example, if the car is dispatched from the lobby floor in the upward direction, it will stop and open its doors at each landing above the lobby landing corresponding to an operated switch in the car and at each landing at which there is an operated switch indicating a demand for service in the up direction. Similarly, a car travelling in the down direction will normally stop and open its doors at each landing corresponding to an operated switch in the car and at each landing at which there is an operated switch indicating a demand for service in the down direction. Also, when the system is operating under "high call reversal" conditions, a car will not reverse direction until it has reached the landing corresponding to the highest registered demand for service, either a car or a landing call.

From an examination of FIG. 1 and a comparison thereof with FIG. 1 of said U.S Pat. No. 3,314,501, it will be apparent that the circuit of said patent is modified as follows:

(1) A manually operable switch OHKSa in series with the coil of a relay HCKa are connected in parallel with the coil of the relay CKa through leads 10 and 11, relay HCKa being energized when switch OHKSa is in its closed position, whenever there is a car call registered in car a. A lamp HCIa may be connected in parallel with the coil of HCKa and may be located in car a to indicate to the passenger therein that the system of the invention is in operation.

(2) The connection between the coils of relays HJUa and HJDa, which are energized repectively by an up or down landing call above the position of car a for highest call determination, is completed through leads 12 and 13 by normally closed contacts HCK2a of relay HCKa.

(3) The connection between contacts SGR7a and the coil of relay XSa, the latter normally being energized when there is a registered landing call to initiate stopping of car a for such a landing call, is completed through leads 14 and 15 by normally closed contacts HCK1a of relay HCKa.

Manually operable switch OHKSa preferably is actuable only by a key retained by authorized personnel and is located at a place convenient for such personnel, such as at the building lobby. However, if desired, switch OHKSa may be clock controlled so that it will be closed during predetermined periods of time, such as from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

When the switch OHKSa is open as shown in FIG. 1, the elevator system operates as described in said U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,501. However, when switch OHKSa is closed, relay HCKa is energized whenever a car call is registered in car a, and the contacts HCK1a and HCK2a are opened thereby preventing response of car a to landing calls and restricting response of the high call reversal circuit to effective car calls. Accordingly, car a will proceed from the landing at which the passenger entered car a to the landing corresponding to the car switch operated by the passenger in the car without stopping at landings other than said last-mentioned landing, even if a landing call switch is operated at such other landings.

Similarly, if more than one car call switch is operated, car a will continue to proceed to the corresponding landings until all car calls are satisfied and without stopping at landings other than those corresponding to the car calls, even if there are landing calls at such other landings.

When all of the car calls are serviced, relay HCKa is de-energized, and car a will then proceed to provide service to the registered landing calls in the manner described in said patent, except that when car a reaches a landing where there is a landing call and a passenger enters and operates a car call switch corresponding to a different landing, car a will proceed to such different landing without responding to landing calls at other landings.

Athough contacts HCK2a and their connections are not essential and may be omitted, and are not necessary in an elevator system not having high call reversal functions, the use of contacts HCK2a and their connections is desirable to prevent high call response to landing calls and thereby prevent undesirable movement of car a in the event that there is a registered landing call in the direction away from the destination of an entering passenger.

As mentioned hereinbefore, lamp HCIa may be connected as shown and placed where it is visible to car a passengers to alert them that the car calls have preferential status and thereby, to urge such passengers to expedite release of the car. However, lamp HCIa may be placed elsewhere or omitted.

The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 is preferred because the additional parts may be readily added to an existing elevator control system, and it is a simple matter to include lamp HCIa. However, if desired, the relay HCKa may be eliminated if the installed relay CKa has unused contacts or if the installation is an original installation and relay CKa is provided with a sufficient number of contacts. In the alternative embodiment in FIG. 2, a pair of normally closed contacts CK5a and CK6a are used in place of the contacts HCK1a and HCK2a shown in FIG. 1, and a double pole switch having the poles OHKS1a and OHKS2a is connected as shown in FIG. 2 to provide the operation of the invention described in connection with FIG. 1. As in the embodiment of FIG. 1, the contacts CK6a and the pole OHKS1a and their connections may be omitted if restriction of the high call reversal functions is not desired.

Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made without departing from the principles of the invention.