US-12617654-B2 - Bridge device and method for elevator

US12617654B2US 12617654 B2US12617654 B2US 12617654B2US-12617654-B2

Abstract

A bridge device and a bridging method are used to monitor an elevator. The bridge device includes a jumper for bridging an electric element of the elevator when the elevator works in a first operating mode, a monitoring means monitoring the jumper, and an alarm unit that generates an alarm signal if the monitoring means determines that the element has been bridged by the jumper longer than a predefined time period when the elevator is operated in a second operating mode.

Inventors

Ulhas Shinde

Assignees

INVENTIO AG

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20210505
Priority Date: 20200511

Claims (12)

1 . A bridge device for an elevator, the bridge device comprising: a jumper adapted to bridge an electric element of the elevator when the elevator is being operated in a first operating mode; a monitoring means monitoring a bridging status of the jumper; an alarm unit connected to the monitoring means; wherein the alarm unit generates an alarm signal when the monitoring means determines that the element has been bridged by the jumper longer than a predefined time period when the elevator is being operated in a second operating mode; and wherein the monitoring means includes an electric current sensor measuring an electric current flowing through the jumper.
2 . The bridge device according to claim 1 wherein the first operating mode is an operation mode for maintaining or inspecting the elevator and the second operating mode is a normal operating mode of the elevator.
3 . The bridge device according to claim 1 wherein the monitoring means includes an interface sending the generated alarm signal to at least one of a controller of the elevator, a remote center and a mobile device.
4 . The bridge device according to claim 3 wherein the interface is a wireless interface.
5 . The bridge device according to claim 1 including a power supply unit supplying energy to the bridge device.
6 . The bridge device according to claim 1 wherein the alarm unit generates the alarm signal as an electrical, optical, acoustic or vibrating signal.
7 . An elevator comprising: an electric element of the elevator; and the bridge device according to claim 1 adapted to bridge the electric element.
8 . A method for bridging and monitoring an electric element of an elevator, the method comprising the steps of: bridging the electric element by a jumper when the elevator is operated in a first operating mode; measuring an electrical current flowing through the jumper; monitoring a bridging status of the jumper; and generating an alarm signal when the element has been bridged by the jumper longer than a predefined time period when the elevator is operated in a second operating mode as determined by the monitoring.
9 . The method according to claim 8 wherein the first operating mode is an operation mode for maintaining or inspecting the elevator and the second operating mode is a normal operating mode of the elevator.
10 . The method according to claim 8 including sending the generated alarm signal to at least one of a controller of the elevator, a remote center and a mobile device.
11 . The method according to claim 8 wherein the alarm signal is generated as an electrical, optical, acoustic or vibrating signal.
12 . An elevator comprising: an electric element; a jumper adapted to bridge the electric element when the elevator is being operated in a first operating mode; a monitoring means monitoring the jumper; an alarm unit connected to the monitoring means; and monitoring the electric element according to the method of claim 8 wherein the alarm unit generates an alarm signal when the monitoring means determines that the element has been bridged by the jumper longer than the predefined time period when the elevator is being operated in the second operating mode.

Description

FIELD The invention relates to a bridge device and a bridging method for an elevator and an elevator with such a bridge device or monitored by such a method. BACKGROUND An elevator comprises an elevator car being movable vertically in an elevator shaft (hoistway) and may stop at different floors or stories of a multi-story building, wherein there is an elevator control system being responsible for coordinating all aspects of elevator service and functions. Typically, an elevator includes a plurality of safety-relevant components and protection devices, e.g., door contacts, emergency switches, overspeed-devices, etc. which are connected in series to prevent the elevator from being able to start up if any of the components does not function properly. Such a series of numerous protection devices are commonly referred to as a safety chain that is prescribed by several standard regulations as e.g. EN81-1. If any one of the devices fails or is open, the safety chain is consequently broken so that the elevator will be blocked from current operating. Only when the contacts of all the protection devices within the safety chain are closed, the safety chain will permit further operating with the elevator. There are a lot of different sensors of the elevator that monitor respectively safety-related functions like car speed, position and door-lock state, etc. The sensors send detected data or signals to a controller of or for the elevator. For instance, if a sensor informs a controller that a shaft door lock is not engaged, the controller will prevent a movement of the elevator car until this problem is resolved. After an elevator is installed, regular maintenance and periodic testing and inspection must be performed for the elevator by necessary or under specifications and regulations. During these procedures, a bypass unit (also called as bridge unit or jumper) may be used to bypass, short circuit or interrupt certain components or switches of the elevator. Especially, the safety chain or one or more of the protection devices sometimes need to be bypassed temporarily during installation or inspection work. Then a wire bridge or jumper can be used by a technician to bridge such a protection device or its contact for troubleshooting and testing. For instance, to test a shaft door switch, a technician may bridge this door switch by using an electric jumper to allow the elevator car travels while this shaft door is unlocked. In this case, the safety chain of the elevator is bypassed by the jumper at this unlocked shaft door. Such an electric jumper typically includes a conduit configured to bypass an opened electric switch so that it permits electrical current to flow along this bypass pathway through the jumper over the switch. Once this testing is finished, the technician must remove the jumper from the bridged door switch in order to make this switch work functionally again. But it happens often that the jumper could be inadvertently left in place after servicing the elevator so that a serious safety hazard might occur, as the bridged shaft door contact has been taken apart from the safety chain. Therefore, it is to minimize as much as possible the risks caused by an unintentional bypassing of a safety-relevant component of a safety chain by a jumper that has been mistakenly left in the working place. WO 2011090665 A2 describes an elevator safety tool for short-circuiting an elevator switch. The tool includes a control module and a relay, wherein the relay has a switch having a closed and an open position. The control module receives status data and determines whether the operating status is “normal” or “service”. The switch is closed when the elevator is in service, and open when the elevator is in normal operation. Even though such a safety tool may reduce the risk caused by an inadvertently left bridge unit, but the safety tool requires service technicians not only to connect the safety tool to a switch which is to be short-circuited but also to an elevator control to receive status data. Therefore, a need exists for a simple possibility that may further reduce the potential risks associated with using bridge devices in the installation or maintenance procedures of elevators. SUMMARY An object of this invention of the present patent application may be to disclose a bypassing possibility which can be carried out safely for an elevator to meet the demand to avoid the above-mentioned disadvantage of using a conventional jumper. Such an object may be achieved by the subject-matter of the exemplary embodiments that are evident from the following description. According to this present invention, the first aspect relates to a bridge device for an elevator, wherein the bridge device comprises a jumper for bridging an electric element of the elevator when the elevator works in its first operating mode. The bridge device is provided further with a monitoring means for monitoring the jumper and an alarm unit which is capable o