GB549616A - Improvements in or relating to moving stairways - Google Patents

Abstract

549,616. Escalators. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC INTERNATIONAL CO. June 17, 1941, No. 7641. Convention date, June 18, 1940. [Class 78 (i)] In an escalator each of the steps is provided with rollers running along a track and with biasing means mounted on the stairway framework for applying resilient pressure to some part of the chain connecting the steps, as they move along a portion of the track, so as to maintain the rollers in contact with that portion of the track. In the construction shown the steps 11 are provided with leading rollers 33, 34 mounted on shafts 32 and with trailing rollers 35. The leading rollers are connected together by a chain 13 having rollers 28, some of which are mounted on the shafts 32. As the steps move from the lower horizontal position to the upward incline the tension of the chain 13 tends to cause the rollers 33, 34 to leave their guide tracks 36, 38 and bear against guard rails 44, 44a, but this is prevented by means of rails 47. 47a resiliently-mounted on the fixed framework 45 and bearing against the rollers 28. These rails preferably comprise flexible steel strips 48 faced with strips 47, 47a of textile material impregnated with a phenolic condensation product such as that known under the Registered Trade Mark " Micarta." The guard rails are connected to the framework 45 by springs 49 and are prevented from endwise movement by strip springs 51.