Lift for installation against a substantially vertical wall

Abstract

A lift for installation against a substantially vertical wall, comprising a support adapted to be mounted against said wall so as to extend substantially vertically along said wall, a plurality of shaft sections adapted for unilateral mounting one above the other against said support so as to form a continuous shaft, guide members in each shaft section positioned so that the aligned guide members of the successive shaft sections form a continuous guideway extending alongside said support, and a lift car adapted to be unilaterally guided along said guideway.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a lift for installation against a substantially vertical wall.

When installing such a lift in the usual way, much masonry work has to be done to build a shaft, whereas the assembly of the parts of the lift requires long and accurate work.

The present invention provides a lift which can be installed within a few hours against existing walls.

This is obtained according to the invention in that a lift for installation against a substantially vertical wall comprises a support adapted to be mounted against said wall so as to extend substantially vertically along said wall, a plurality of shaft sections adapted for unilateral mounting one above the other against said support so as to form a continuous shaft, guide members in each shaft section positioned so that the aligned guide members of the successive shaft sections form a continuous guideway extending alongside said support, and a lift car adapted to be unilaterally guided along said guideway.

Thus, the only necessary preparatory work for installing the lift is to provide the required openings in floors and ceilings and to attach a number of anchor bolts to the wall, after which the installation of the lift itself is just a matter of assembling the prefabricated sections, which can be done quickly by relatively unskilled labour.

To enable a quick assembly, the successive shaft sections and/or guide members are preferably connected by plugs fitting into aligned hollow beams of said sections and/or members. Said plugs may each comprise a steel block lined with a plastics suitable for being pressed into the opening of a hollow beam.

Accurate guiding of the lift car and the counterweight is possible according to a further feature of the invention by providing each shaft section with two parallel guide beams, the cross sections of each of which comprise a closed rectangular part plus a channel part facing the other beam and a channel part facing away from said other beam. The channel parts of said guide beams facing each other may then serve as raceways for the counterweight of the lift, the other channels of said two beams may serve as raceways for the lift car and each beam may further have a third raceway serving also for guiding the lift car. The closed rectangular part of the beams may serve to connect the successive beam sections by the plug described. Thus, one pair of beams of relatively simple cross section is sufficient for accurate guidance of lift car and counterweight.

Each shaft section may be composed of hollow metal beams connected together to a boxlike structure in the corners of which three or four hollow beams are united at right angles by means of corresponding plugs. So as to conceal these plugs, the ends of at least some of the hollow beams in the corner connections are recessed for lodging an arm of the plug. In each corner, these recesses are preferably located at the two inner sides of the lower vertical beam, so that the plug can be inserted in the lower beam and the two horizontal beams and the upper vertical beam can smoothly abut against the lower vertical beam.

The sides of the boxlike structures of the shaft sections can be closed by metal sheeting or glazing and the hollow beams of the structure can have receded flanges so that the sheeting or glazing and the beams of the shaft sections form a common, smooth outer surface.

The vertical support to which the shaft sections are mounted, comprises preferably two vertical hollow beams connected by cross beams. The support can be composed of sections which are mounted one above the other against the wall. The hollow beams may have a rectangular section with a flange aligned with that side of the rectangle which is remote from the wall. The flanges of the two beams are preferably directed towards each other and serve on the one hand for clamping the support against wall anchors and on the other hand for clamping the shaft sections to the support. This provides for a fast, adjustable connection.

SURVEY OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic horizontal section of a lift according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal section, partly broken away.

FIG. 3 shows a detail of the structure of FIG. 2 at a larger scale.

FIG. 4 is a front view, partly broken away, of the vertical support.

FIG. 5 is a top view of the vertical support.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a corner of a shaft section.

FIG. 7 is a cross section of a guide beam.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a guide beam with connecting plug.

FIG. 9 is a view from above of the base member of the shaft.

FIG. 10 is a front view of the base member according to FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a schematic vertical section of a lift according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT:

The lift according to the invention is intended primarily as a small lift for goods, for which a unilateral mounting of the lift car can be used. According to FIGS. 1 and 11 the car 1 is guided by mutually perpendicular pairs of wheels 2 and 3 along two parallel vertical guide beams 4 fastened to the rear inner wall of the metal shaft 6 indicated in broken lines. The counterweight 7 is also guided along the guide beams 4 by mutually perpendicular pairs of wheels 8 and 9. The driving and suspending mechanism for the car 1 and for the counterweight 7 is mounted on top of the shaft 6. The rear of the shaft 6 is fastened to a substantially vertical wall or a like part of a building by means of a support which is not shown in FIG. 1.

According to FIG. 2 anchor bolts 11 or the like are mounted at regular spacings in the wall 10 and said anchor bolts hold short horizontal angle irons 12 against the wall. To each angle iron 12, a second horizontal angle iron 13 is adjustably mounted by means of bolts 14 extending through elongated holes. A support formed by two vertical box section beams 15 connected at regular spacings by cross beams 18 at a mutual distance corresponding to the width of the shaft 6, is clamped against a series of angle irons 13 by clips 16 acting on a lateral flange 17 of each beam 15. The support 15-18 may comprise a plurality of sections of standard length, which can be mounted on top of each other against the walls of the building over the total height required for the lift. A fast and adjustable mounting of the support is possible merely by clamping the lateral flanges 17 against the angle irons 13 by means of the clips 16. The lower end of the lift rests on a base member (see FIG. 9 and 10) which takes up the load. As shown in FIG. 3, the shaft 6 is also clamped to the lateral flanges 17 of the vertical support 15 by means of clips 19. Thus, after mounting the vertical support to the wall, the lift structure can be completed merely by placing a series of prefabricated shaft sections 6 on top of each other and clamping them against the support 15.

Each shaft section 6 (see especially FIG. 6) comprises a box shaped frame made up of rectangular section beams 20, 21 connected at right angles to each other by means of plugs 22. The beams 20 are provided with two flanges 23, 24 perpendicular to two adjacent sides of the rectangle, whereas the beams 21 have two flanges 25 perpendicular to two opposite sides of the rectangle. In the assembled frame, the flanges 23, 24, 25 form supporting rims along the rectangular sides of the box shaped frame for attachment of cover sheeting so as to form smooth closed sides of the shaft. The cover sheeting may comprise glass or metal which may be coated with an insulating layer. With respect to the exterior surface of the walls of the shaft 6, the flanges 23, 24, 25 are set back on the beams to such an amount that the exterior surface of the cover sheeting will be in the same plane as the exterior surfaces of the beams which constitute the frames of the shaft sections. In the rectangular frames of the shaft sections, the corner connections are made between three or four beams 20, 21 extending at right angles to each other, by plugs 22 comprising a steel core coated by a plastics and having three or four perpendicular arms which are inserted into the hollow beams so as to connect them. In order to obtain that the plugs in the corners are fully concealed, the upper end of the lower vertical beam 20 of each corner connection is provided with recesses 20 at the two rear sides as viewed in FIG. 6, such that the lateral arms 26, 27 of the plugs 22 will be received in said recesses. Thus, the exterior surfaces of the central part of the plug will be fully covered by the beam 20 and the three remaining beams may smoothly abut against this beam and fully conceal the plug 22.

The beams 20, 21 are preferably made of aluminium, and to obtain a strong connection with the vertical support 15, steel cores 28 (FIG. 3) are preferably inserted into the beams 21 at the locations where they are fastened against the supports 15. These steel cores 28 also strengthen the connection of the guide beams 4 against the same rear beams 21 of the shaft sections 6 (see FIG. 3).

According to FIG. 7 and 8 each guide member 4 is made of aligned sections of an aluminium beam, connected by plugs 29 which may also comprise a core covered by a plastics and which are inserted in the central hollow rectangular part of the beams. The sides of the two beams 4 facing each other have pairs of parallel flanges 32 and 33 forming a raceway for the guide wheels 9 of the counterweight and being positioned in line with the parallel sides 30 and 31 of the rectangular central part of the beams, the side 30 abutting against the rear wall of the shaft. The guide wheels 2 and 3 of the lift car 1 are guided in raceways formed at the sides of the beams 4 facing away from each other, said raceways being defined by a flange 34 in line with the side 30 of the rectangular central part of the beam, the side 37 of the rectangle adjacent the flange 34 and normal to the side 30, a flange 36 in line with the side 37 and extending outwardly of the side 31 of the rectangle, and a flange 35 extending normal to the flange 36 at the end thereof so as to be parallel to the flange 34. The wheels 2 of the lift car run on the raceway between the flanges 34 and 35 and the wheels 3 of the lift run on a raceway formed by the opposite surface of the flange 36, see also FIG. 1.

A lift according to the invention can be prefabricated in sections composed of the above described beams, these sections can easily be shipped to the building and can be quickly and easily assembled in the building. If desired, control cables and the like can be passed through the beams 15. The beams are preferably made of aluminium, for saving weight and also because the beams 4 can easily be extruded from aluminium and be redrawn to the exact size.

An important advantage of the described prefabricated construction is that the spacing of the two guide members 4 can easily be maintained constant over their full height, without difficult measuring and drilling work during assembling. For the beams 4 are fastened into prefabricated holes of the beams 21 and the cores 28 (see FIG. 3) which holes, together with the beams 21 and the cores 28 themselves, can easily accurately controlled as to size and location since they are not assembled on the job but in the mill. Thus, the two guide members 4 will always provide an accurate guideway for the lift car.

Preferably, the lift is installed on a base member which serves also for holding a dust tray as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. The base member 42 is placed on a supporting floor in front of the wall support formed by the two vertical beams 15. The base member 42 is rectangular in plan view so as to correspond to the rectangular shape of the shaft sections 6. The base member 42 is essentially formed of a metal sheet which is centrally dished in a direction normal to the wall so as to provide a trough into which the dust tray can be inserted. Along both sides of the trough, a narrow supporting surface 43 extends along the upper surface of the base member 42, at both sides normal to the wall. The lowermost shaft section 6 rests on said supporting surface 43. A vertical plate 44 is mounted against the rear side of the base member 42 and this plate 44 is clamped to the lateral flanges of the two vertical beams 15 by means of clips 45. At the four corners of the base member 42, adjustable supporting feet 46 are formed by screw bolts extending vertically under the supporting surfaces 43, so as to adjust the base member to an uneven floor. A plint 47 can be provided around the base member, an opening being provided in the front wall thereof for inserting the dust tray.

Claims

What I claim is:

1. A lift for installation against a substantially vertical wall, comprising a support adapted to be mounted against said wall so as to extend substantially vertically along said wall, a plurality of shaft sections each formed of interconnected peripheral elements surrounding an interior of the shaft section, means for interconnecting said shaft sections in axial alignment one above the other so as to form a continuous shaft, means for securing said shaft sections to said support, guide members within the interior of each shaft section positioned so that the aligned guide members of the successive shaft sections form a continuous guideway within the interior of said shaft, the guide members of each shaft section comprising two parallel guide beams, the cross section of each of which comprises a closed rectangular part plus a channel part facing the other beam and a channel part facing away from said other beam, a lift car within the interior of said shaft, and means movably interconnecting said car and said guideway.

2. A lift for installation against a substantially vertical wall, comprising a support adapted to be mounted against said wall so as to extend substantially vertically along said wall, a plurality of shaft sections each formed of interconnected peripheral elements surrounding an interior of the shaft section, means for interconnecting said shaft sections in axial alignment one above the other so as to form a continuous shaft, means for securing said shaft sections to said support, guide members within the interior of each shaft section positioned so that the aligned guide members of the successive shaft sections form a continuous guideway within the interior of said shaft, a lift car within the interior of said shaft, and means movably interconnecting said car and said guideway, each shaft section comprising at least one horizontal rectangular frame and four upstanding posts, all of which are formed by hollow rectangular section beams which are connected at right angles in the corners of the box like structure, recesses being formed at the ends of at least some of the hollow beams of each shaft section such that lateral arms of multi-armed connecting plugs inserted into the hollow beams can extend through said recesses.

3. A lift according to claim 2, in which the recesses for the lateral arms of the connecting plugs are provided at the two inwardly facing sides of the lower vertical hollow beam of each corner connection.

4. A lift for installation against a substantially vertical wall, comprising a support adapted to be mounted against said wall so as to extend substantially vertically along said wall, said support comprising a pair of vertical box shaped beams connected at regular spacings by cross beams, a plurality of shaft sections each formed of interconnected peripheral elements surrounding an interior of the shaft section, means for interconnecting said shaft sections in axial alignment one above the other so as to form a continuous shaft, means for securing said shaft sections to said support, guide members within the interior of each shaft section positioned so that the aligned guide members of the successive shaft sections form a continuous guideway within the interior of said shaft, a lift car within the interior of said shaft, and means movably interconnecting said car and said guideway.

5. A lift according to claim 4, in which the support comprises a plurality of sections mounted in line with and on top of each other.

6. A lift for installation against a substantially vertical wall, comprising a support adapted to be mounted against said wall so as to extend substantially vertically along said wall, a plurality of shaft sections each formed of interconnected peripheral elements surrounding an interior of the shaft section, means for interconnecting said shaft sections in axial alignment one above the other so as to form a continuous shaft, means for securing said shaft sections to said support, guide members within the interior of each shaft section positioned so that the aligned guide members of the successive shaft sections form a continuous guideway within the interior of said shaft, a lift car within the interior of said shaft, and means movably interconnecting said car and said guideway, the lowermost shaft section being supported on a base member formed by a dished plate on which a dust tray can be supported, laterally of the dished portion the base member having two parallel supporting surfaces for the lowermost section, and four adjustable supporting feet being provided under said supporting surfaces at the four corners of the base member.

7. A lift according to claim 6, in which a vertical plate is attached to the rear of the base member for clamping said base member to the vertical support of the lift.