Elevator

This invention relates to an elevator that carries passengers or loads to a desired floor of a building by means of a cage which ascends or descends freely in a vertical path. More particularly, this invention relations to an elastic member to be attached to an elevator for the purpose of preventing inadvertently dropped things from escaping through a gap between the front end of the floor of a cage and an end of every floor of a building opposed thereto.

Conventionally, there is intentionally provided a little gap between the front end of the floor of a cage and the opposed end of each floor of a building in order that tremors caused by earthquakes or big motor cars passing by the building. On account of the presence of such gap, passengers getting in or out a cage tend to lose their small articles when they carelessly dropped them into it because picking them up usually requires a lot of time and trouble; besides it is unsuccessful in most cases.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an elevator with such an elastic member whose upper surface lies so flush with and so near the floor of a cage and the floor of each floor of a building that not only does the elastic member prevent carelessly dropped small articles from escaping through the gap but prevents women's high heels and children's shoes from getting into it whereby the passengers' safety is assured and loaded trucks are also able to be embarked or disembarked without any fear of their wheels getting into it. It is another object of this invention to provide an elevator with such an elastic member, made of rubber or the like, that does not give a cage any shock by its deformable, shock-absorbing elasticity even when the cage strikes against it and can also be incorporated in any conventional elevator without hindering the ascending and descending movement of a cage.

The above and other objects and features of the invention will appear more fully hereinafter from a consideration of the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein one example is illustrated by way of example.

FIG. 1 is a partially enlarged side view of an essential part of an elastic member of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of an entire elevator equipment;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional plan view of a cage and a vertical path through which the same cage moves up and down; and

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged side view of an essential part of another example of this invention.

Now this invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In FIG. 2, a box-shaped cage 3 which can hold passengers or loads is suspended by a wire cable 4 in a vertical path 2 communicating with an exit of every floor 1a-1f of a building 1. One end of the cable 4 is fastened to the upper part of the vertical path, while the other is fastened to the top of the cage 3 by way of a wheel attached to a counter-weight 5, a guide wheel 7 and a hoist 8, where the guide wheel and the hoist are located in a motor room 6. When a motor of the hoist 8 gets started, the cable is veered down or hauled up in order to lower or lift the cage in accordance therewith by means of the counter-weight 5. In this way, passengers or loads can be carried to any desired floor. When the floor 3a of the cage 3 gets flush with any desired floor, a pair of right and left sliding doors 9, 9 of the cage 3 and a pair of right and left sliding doors 10, 10 of that floor open at the same time so as to give there an exit, whereby passengers or loaded trucks are permitted to get in or get out.

Referring now to the spatial relation between the cage 3 and the vertical path 2 with reference to FIG. 3, there is provided a considerably wide gaps L.sub.1, L around the cage. An elastic member (hereinafter referred to as a rubber step 11a-11f) whose length is nearly the same as the width of the exit, whose width is nearly the same as the gap L.sub.1 and whose cross-section is triangular in shape, is attached to the end of each floor inside the vertical path 2 so as to be flush with each other. Hence, the tip of the triangular rubber steps 11a-11f gently touches to the front floor end of the cage 3. In other words, only when the cage 3 stops at a desired floor, a rubber step at that floor is put between the cage 3 and that floor end as if it is stuffed into the gap L.sub.1 and there forms a continuous plane uniting the floor of the cage and that floor.

As shown in FIG. 4, a rubber step 11g can of course be attached to the front floor end of the cage in place of every floor end inside the vertical path 2; the same effect can be brought out like this.

As best seen from the above, according to this invention a rubber step 11a-11g, or 11g is put in the gap L.sub.1 between the cage 3 and every floor where the cage stops at so as to prevent inadvertently dropped small articles from escaping therefrom. Other than that, a newly formed continuous plane uniting the floor of the cage and the floor of the building serves to prevent women's high heels and children's shoes from getting into the gap. The passengers' safety is thus protected; at the same time, loaded trucks are able to be embarked or disembarked without any fear of their wheels getting into the gap. The rubber steps 11a-11f, or 11g are thus very helpful for not only passengers but loads; on the other hand, they never give the cage 3 substantially any shock even if the cage should strike against them stopping at wrong position because their elasticity absorbs it; moreover, they are never an obstacle to the cage incessantly ascending and descending in the vertical path and their attachment is quite simple as well as their structure.

While preferred embodiments of this invention have been illustrated and described, variations and modification may be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, I do not wish to be limited thereto and ask that the scope and breadth of this invention be determined from the claims which follow rather than the above description.