Elevator Door System Parts

Elevator doors are one of the hardest working parts in an elevator. They open and close 200,000 times per year, producing a lot of wear and tear.

They need to be reliable, safe, and look great. That’s why it’s important to choose the right system for your building and elevator needs.

Motors

A motor is one of the most important components in an elevator. It pulls the elevator car up and down and moves the car around in the shaft to transport people or cargo between floors.

The motor also opens and closes the doors on the elevator cars. These parts of the elevator need to open and close efficiently every time an elevator stops at a floor.

Typical passenger elevators have about 200,000 doors open per year, which is a lot of wear and tear for the equipment that operates them. Door operator systems are very small units that receive a signal from the elevator controller to open and close the doors only when it is safe.

They usually have some sort of ‘Door Protection’ circuitry that shuts them off if they get too hot, or if they are physically obstructed. In some cases, these doors may even time out and stop working for a few minutes to allow the motors to cool before trying again.

The motors that operate the doors are often powered by AC power delivered through a travelling cable. This power is then converted to DC power by a transformer, and stepped down by a door motor drive to supply the DC motors with the necessary energy to operate the doors.

Belts

Elevator belts are an important component in a vertical transport system. They provide a means of transporting products to different floors, and they are available in several sizes and materials.

They also make up a critical part of the elevator door system, which opens and closes each time a car or hatch is moved from one floor to another. According to a major door manufacturer, the average elevator door open and closes over 200,000 times per year, which can cause a lot of wear on its components.

The elevator belts used in the elevator door systems are designed to withstand a variety of conditions and handling parameters, including high temperatures. They are also capable of incorporating wash-out drain connections for improved cleaning.

When selecting an elevator belt, it is important to consider the material being transported and the handling conditions. For example, a rubber-coated elevator belt is ideal for conveying products that are prone to deterioration due to heat or other factors.

A nitrile elevator belt is specially designed for use with agricultural products and animal feed. It is very resistant to oil and fat, and it is also flame-retardant.

Cogged pulleys and belts prevent sliding between them, which is a common problem in cable elevators. This ensures that the elevator stops at where it needs to stop and also reduces noise levels and improves comfort.

Gears

Elevator doors open and close in response to Elevator Door System Parts a signal from an elevator controller. Door operators, small devices that sit on top of the car and drive the doors, receive this feedback and then operate their motors to open and close the elevator’s doors.

Many modern passenger elevators utilize these door operators to help prevent entrapment of passengers by opening and closing the doors only when necessary. They also monitor objects in the path of moving doors to close them if they are impeded.

The door operator is often powered by a small AC or DC motor that sits on top of the elevator car. A feedback device, called an encoder, is used to monitor the movement of the doors and ensure they fully open and close.

In some cases, the door operator is connected to a door lock. This prevents an unsuspecting person from tampering with the doors or accessing the shaft.

Some elevators are equipped with an emergency door closing feature, which can be activated by a firefighter when the elevator car is on fire or is about to move into a building. A switch that is manually activated by the firefighter enables this mode and disables the elevator’s ability to respond to hall calls, but it remains at the recall floor until the firefighter holds the door open button.

Another type of elevator is a vehicle elevator, which moves cars to and from manufacturer’s storage or to and from parking garages. They can be very heavy (up to 2 tons) and rely on geared hydraulic chains rather than counterweights.

Rollers

Elevator door system parts often include rollers for guiding the movement of the elevator doors from an open position to a closed position. Rollers can be either telescopic or center-opening in nature, and may be connected to the elevator doors by hanging them from a hanger or ring.

A rail or guide rail is attached to an upper panel 48 of the elevator car 12. The upper rail is secured in a manner that allows roller 38 and door hanger 36 to move along the rail from an open position 34A to a closed position 34B.

In one embodiment, door hanger 36 is a relatively flat plate with angled surfaces that allow the rollers to be properly positioned with respect to the doors. In this case, fastener 56 is used to secure roller 38 with respect to door hanger 36.

Preferably, a roller guide is included that has an elastically yielding rail running surface. This enables the rollers to run without spotting, and also helps to dampen the noise caused by the rolling.

The guide rail also preferably has an arcuate shape for providing optimum guidance for the runners and prevents the door from sliding off of the rail. This is achieved by a hose-like covering of sheet metal, which produces a spring effect within the elastic range or limit of the hose-like covering, when the rollers pass over it.

Gibs

The gib is a small, yet very important, component of the elevator door. It is a combination of a plastic and metal part that slides back and forth in the grooves on the sill where the door panels are located. The gib is a great way to prevent the doors from swinging in and out or being thrown about by the weight of passing elevator cars, which is particularly important for safety reasons.

The best thing about the gib is that it’s a very simple to install and maintain. It is usually a relatively easy task to replace the old one with the new, although you may need to call in a professional to do Elevator Door System Parts the job if you’re not sure how to do it yourself. Besides the obvious safety and convenience aspects, the gib is an extremely useful part of the elevator’s system that you’ll be happy you have.

A good tip for the home elevator enthusiast is to schedule regular maintenance, especially on the system components that are under the most strain such as the tracks and sills, rollers and linkages. This will save money in the long run as well as prevent damage to your building and its occupants.

Linkages

The elevator door system parts have dozens of moving parts that must be inspected regularly and replaced when needed. These include the tracks, sills, rollers, gibs, and linkages.

One hard working part of the elevator is the car and hatch doors, which open and close each time the elevator stops at a floor. These systems open and close about 200,000 times per year, producing a lot of wear on the equipment.

For this reason, the doors need to be inspected and adjusted by a professional technician. They also need to be properly aligned and free of obstructions like kinks in the railings.

Another important aspect of an elevator door is the mechanical drive mechanism. This consists of a fast panel and one or more slower panels that are linked together through a series of synchronous linkages.

A first synchronous linkage mechanism is provided that includes a series of links extending alternatively upwards and downwards between a first pivot point mounted to the door frame and a further pivot point mounted to the fast panel. A drive lever is connected to the first synchronous linkage mechanism and engagable with the vertically aligned beam so that horizontal movement of the beam is translated by the drive lever into rotation of the first synchronous linkage mechanism about its pivot points.

A synchronization and positioning system is also included that includes an idler pulley attached to one side of the header bracket and an encoder pulley attached to an opposite side of the header bracket. A relating cable is extended over both the idler pulley and the encoder pulley to form a closed loop having a first loop portion and a second loop portion, as shown in Figure 2.