JP2000072366A - Moving walk - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a variable-speed moving walk capable of preventing passengers from walking during movement while using handrails fixed to a pallet in a simple structure. SOLUTION: Handles 8 are rotatively connected to handrails 7 fixed to both sides of a pallet 1. Then, a link mechanism or a motor is used to drive the handles 8 in an attitude of extending downward vertically in the vicinity of a landing area and in an attitude of extending horizontally as farther from the landing area. The handles 8 are elastically supported by flexible members to allow passengers, when falling down in a gap in the pallet, to move back on the pallet 1 while forcibly expanding the handles 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a moving sidewalk, and more particularly to a variable speed moving sidewalk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 shows a configuration example of a conventional moving walkway.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional moving sidewalk includes a plurality of pallets 1 for carrying passengers, a pair of endless belt-shaped handrails 2 synchronized with the moving speed of the pallets 1, side walls 3, and a landing 4.
a and 4b. In such a moving sidewalk, the platform 4
The pallet 1 moves at a sufficiently low speed to ensure the safety of passengers who get on and off between the pallets 1 and 4a. This speed is usually set at 30 to 60 m / min. Then, in the conventional moving sidewalk, the pallets move at the same speed during the entire transporting process, so that the pallets are transported between the landings 4a and 4b at this speed. However, since this speed is slower than a normal human walking speed (67 to 100 m / min), the time required for transportation becomes longer, giving passengers a sense of delay. For this reason, there has been a demand for a moving sidewalk that enables faster transportation.

In order to solve this problem, a variable speed moving sidewalk as shown in FIG. 9 has been proposed. This means that the moving speed of the pallet 1 is low when it emerges from the landing 4a, but then accelerates, transports the passenger at a faster speed, and then decelerates to transport the passenger to the landing. Things. In the case of such a configuration example, if the speed of the handrail is constant, a relative speed is generated between the pallet and the pallet moving at a variable speed, and the original purpose of the handrail is to prevent the passenger from overturning. Can not be fulfilled.

One way to address this problem is to:
There is a method in which the handrail is divided into a plurality of parts and the moving speed of the handrail is gradually changed. A typical known example is a technique disclosed in JP-A-7-101662. FIG. 9 shows that the handrail of the acceleration unit is divided into two sections based on the technique of this known example, and the divided handrails 5a, 5b
And This may be divided into a larger number of sections.
However, in this method, the pallet 1 and the divided handrails 5a, 5a,
Since the synchronization of b is not completely maintained, the effect of preventing falling is reduced.

[0005] As a second method for keeping the speed of the pallet and the handrail in a variable-speed moving walkway the following,
As disclosed in JP-A-49-8972 and JP-A-9-240976, there is a method in which the handrail is also of a variable speed type to achieve perfect synchronization with a pallet. However, in this technique, since the variable speed mechanism must be provided also on the handrail, the mechanism configuration is excessively complicated.

[0006] Yet another technique for eliminating the speed difference between the pallet and the handrail of a variable speed moving walkway is disclosed in GB 128,453. this is,
The handrail 7 is fixed to the pallet 1 as shown in FIG. Passengers are prevented from falling by being gripped by the handrail 7. According to this technique, the moving speeds of the pallet 1 and the handrail 7 are always the same with a simple mechanism, and it can be said that the structure is suitable for a variable speed moving sidewalk. Also, UK Patent 128
Although not shown in No. 6453, it is easily analogized that this configuration can be used for the purpose of simplifying the configuration of the handrail 2 even on a sidewalk where the moving speed is constant as shown in FIG. . Therefore, the configuration using the handrail 7 is effective not only for the variable speed type but also for all moving sidewalks using pallets.

[0007]

As described above, FIG.
The handrail 7 shown in FIG. 0 is a suitable method for constructing a variable-speed moving sidewalk with a simple mechanism, but has a problem that it is impossible to prevent a passenger from walking on a pallet. That is, in the variable speed moving sidewalk shown in FIGS. 9 and 10,
A gap 6 is created between each pallet 1 after acceleration from the landing 4a. After the vehicle arrives near the opposite landing and decelerates, the gap 6 disappears. Here, when the gap 6 is formed, the relative distance between the passengers is larger than that at the time of boarding, so that the passengers have a consciousness to walk and pack forward. However, when the gap 6 disappears due to the deceleration in the state where the vehicle is packed forward, the relative distance between the passengers becomes smaller than that at the time of boarding. For this reason, a crowded state of the passengers occurs, and in an extreme case, a fall may occur. On the other hand, in the above-mentioned technology of JP-A-49-8972, the handle protrudes from the left and right in synchronization with the acceleration of the handrail,
It prevents passengers from walking and closing the gap. However, this further complicates the mechanism.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a variable speed moving walkway having a handrail having a simple structure and having both a passenger balance securing effect and a walking preventing effect.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a moving walkway configured to carry passengers by means of a plurality of pallets having handrails attached to the side ends thereof, wherein the sidewalk is rotatably mounted on the handrail. It is characterized by comprising a mounted handle, and a control mechanism for controlling a rotation angle of the handle so as to be in an open state where a passenger can walk between adjacent pallets and a closed state where the passenger is prevented from walking. Disclose a moving sidewalk.

Further, according to the present invention, on a moving sidewalk, a part or the whole of the handle is elastically supported by a flexible means, and the handle is manually opened even when the handle is closed. Disclosed is a moving sidewalk characterized by a structure that can be used.

Further, the present invention discloses a moving sidewalk having a display means or an audio warning means for preventing a passenger from sitting or leaning on the steering wheel on the moving sidewalk.

Further, the present invention monitors a handrail stored in a handrail storing means provided near a landing on a moving sidewalk, and a handle attached to the handrail cannot be stored in the handrail storing means. Detecting means for detecting whether the vehicle is in the first storage-impossible state or in the second storage-impossible state in which the passenger holds the steering wheel;
A moving sidewalk provided with emergency stop control means for controlling so as to stop the traveling of the pallet when at least one of the storage impossible states is detected.

Further, according to the present invention, on a moving sidewalk, each of the pallets travels at a predetermined first speed from a landing, is accelerated from an acceleration start point, and has a second speed higher than the first speed at an acceleration end point. When the vehicle speed is further reduced from the deceleration start point and the vehicle is controlled to run at the first speed at the deceleration end point, the control mechanism opens the handle of the pallet at the landing in the open state. An operation of rotating the handle to the closed state before the pallet reaches the acceleration start point, and an operation of rotating the handle to the open state after the pallet reaches the deceleration end point are performed. A moving walkway characterized by being controlled to complete is disclosed.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of a moving sidewalk according to the present invention, and shows the vicinity of the landing 4a. The main components are
Pallet 1, platform 4a, handrail 7, handle 8
It is. The handle 8 is a feature of the present invention, and is attached to the handrail 7 so as to be rotatable around the rotating portion 9. It is assumed that the pallet 1 is traveling upward and to the right (in the direction opposite to the arrow A).

FIG. 1 shows one of the pallets 1 of FIG.
In the enlarged view seen from the direction, the handle 8 is in a state of hanging vertically (open state) as indicated by reference numeral 8 'near the entrance / exit 4a, so that the passenger 8 does not hinder the passenger's walking. . Then, as the pallet 1 advances to the upper right of FIG. 1 and accelerates, and as the gap 6 is generated, the handle 8 rotates about the rotating portion 9 to extend horizontally, and the pallet 1 is in a closed state in which passengers cannot walk. Become. FIG. 11 shows an example of a method for controlling the handle rotation angle accompanying the movement of the pallet. In the figure, the pallet is moving at the speed v1 at the landing, and is accelerated to the speed v2 (> v1) between the acceleration start point and the acceleration end point. Then, it is assumed that the vehicle is decelerated from the deceleration start point to the deceleration end point when approaching the descent and returns to the speed v1 again. In response to such pallet speed control,
At the landing, the steering wheel rotation angle is set to the open state, and rotation in the closing direction of the steering wheel is started from the closing operation start point before reaching the acceleration start point to be the closed state. In this way, the closed state of the handle is maintained while moving at high speed, and when the vehicle is decelerated, the opening operation of the handle is started, and the closing operation is completed at the closing operation completion point after the deceleration end point. According to such control, it is possible to reliably prevent a passenger from walking during high-speed movement.

FIG. 3 shows a detailed configuration example of the rotation drive mechanism of the handle 8.
0, torsion spring 13, link 14-16, pinion 1
7, rack 18, shaft 24, guide 19, fulcrum 22
23, rollers 20, and guide rails 21.
The guide rail 21 is provided along the traveling direction of the pallet 1, but is Lc at the center c of the sidewalk where the distance from the end of the pallet 1 moves, Ld near the platform, and Ld.
> Lc.

With this structure, when the pallet 1 is located at the center of the sidewalk, the roller 20 is located in the section c of the guide rail 21 and the shaft 24 is pushed upward to the left in the figure, and the rack 1
8, the link 14 is rotated in the clockwise direction in the figure via the pinion 17, the links 16 and 15. Thus, the handle 8 elastically supported via the torsion spring 13
Is rotated around the rotation unit 9 to extend horizontally. On the other hand, when the pallet 1 is near the landing, the roller 20 is in the section d of the guide rail 21, and the handle 8 is rotated counterclockwise around the rotating part 9 by the same mechanism, and extends vertically downward. The posture (the position indicated by reference numeral 8 'in FIG. 1).

In the example of FIG. 3, the handle 8 is mechanically rotated by a link mechanism. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this detailed example. The link 14 may be directly driven by controlling the rotation of the motor according to the position of the pallet. As a method of detecting the pallet position in this case, a method using a guide rail as shown in FIG. 3, a method of optically reading a mark set along the sidewalk, or a speed signal of the pallet from a control system driving the pallet is used. There are various methods, such as a method of receiving the information, and any method may be used.

The torsion spring 13 is provided on the handle 8
When the user who has fallen outside the pallet 1 returns to the pallet 1, it is possible to push down or push up the handle 8 which becomes an obstacle. That is, since no stopper or the like is provided between the link 14 and the rotating portion 9, the handle 8 can be pushed up and down both vertically by applying a force against the torsion spring 13. As this modification, it is also possible to provide a stopper for suppressing displacement in either the vertical direction. For example, if a stopper for preventing downward displacement is provided, if the strength of the link mechanism for driving the steering wheel 8 can be sufficiently increased, the passenger can lean on the steering wheel 8. Further, when the strength of the link or the like is insufficient or when the stopper is not provided, it is dangerous if a passenger sits down. Therefore, a seating warning means as shown in FIG. 4 may be provided. This warning means is a warning display 12
However, other warning means may be used, such as detecting the seating state from the angle and the load of the rotating unit 9 and playing an announcement to stop the seating by voice.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 3, the link mechanism is
Stored in. The maximum height b of the overhang portion 10 is set smaller than the maximum height a of the handrail 7. The necessity of this configuration will be described with reference to FIG. 5, which shows a handrail storage unit near a landing. In FIG. 5, if the passenger continues to hold the handrail 7 even at the handrail storage unit 26, the passenger's hand will be pinched by the handrail storage unit 26 and injured. To prevent this, the detection sensors 27a and 27b detect the proximity of the passenger's hand to the handrail storage unit 26, and take safety measures such as warning or emergency stop. However, if the overhang 10 is at the same height as the handrail 7, the passenger's hand
Therefore, it is impossible to detect the proximity of the hand by the detection sensor 27a (the sensor on the overhanging side). Therefore, the overhang 10
Is set lower than the handrail 7 to ensure detection by the detection sensor 27a.

In FIG. 5, if the handle 8 is not sufficiently stored, a collision between the handle 8 and the handrail storage section 26 occurs. In order to avoid this, a means for detecting the attitude of the handle 8 is provided on the rotating part 9 and the like, and means for urgently stopping the entire moving sidewalk when the storage of the handle 8 is insufficient is provided. In such a normal moving sidewalk, the whole is decelerated at the same acceleration and stopped. However, in a variable-speed moving sidewalk, the deceleration of the high-speed section may be smaller than that of the low-speed section in order to prevent a passenger riding on the high-speed section from overturning. At this time, the gap 6 in the high-speed section after the stop is narrowed. For this reason, at the time of the recovery operation when restarting the operation, the operation is performed to make the gap 6 equal to the normal operation, and then the operation is shifted to the normal operation.

FIG. 6 shows another example of the structure of the handle. In FIG. 1, the steering wheel is configured to rotate in a plane substantially perpendicular to the traveling direction of the sidewalk. However, in FIG. 6, a rotating part 25 different from the rotating part 9 is provided. , And the rotation direction of the handle 8 is substantially in the horizontal plane (rotation in the direction of the arrow in the figure). This structure can also prevent passengers from walking when a gap is formed between pallets.

In the configuration example of FIG. 2 described above, the handle, which is a feature of the present invention, is provided only at the end of the handrail 7 in the traveling direction. The pallet 1 may advance to the lower left in the figure. In such a case, it is preferable to provide the handle 8 on both the front and rear sides of the handrail 7 so as to obtain a walking-preventing effect even when driving in the reverse direction.

FIG. 7 shows another example of the structure of the moving walkway according to the present invention. On a variable speed moving sidewalk,
In order to enable a wheelchair user to ride on a tower, if the vehicle is accelerated or decelerated for each pallet as shown in FIG. 2, the wheelchair user or the like may fall into the gap 6. For this reason, it is necessary to make a plurality of pallets (usually 3 to 4) as the pallet group 11 and to accelerate and decelerate each pallet group 11. At this time, if the handle 8 protrudes into the pallet group 11, it comes into contact with the wheelchair user. Therefore, when adopting this configuration, the configuration may be such that the handle 8 is provided only at the frontmost portion and the rearmost portion of the pallet group.

[0025]

According to the present invention, while using a handrail having a simple structure fixed to a pallet, a passenger walks on a moving sidewalk without hindering the passenger's getting on / off operation in the vicinity of the landing and getting on and off. Has the effect of preventing the narrowing of the intervals.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a structural example of a handle which is a feature of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a moving walkway according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a drive mechanism of the handle in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a seating prevention warning.

FIG. 5 shows a structure of a storage section of a handrail near a landing.

FIG. 6 is a view showing another example of the structure of the handle.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another configuration example of the moving walkway according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional moving sidewalk.

FIG. 9 is a view showing an example of a conventional variable speed moving sidewalk.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing another example of a conventional variable speed moving sidewalk.

FIG. 11 is an example of a method for controlling a rotation angle of a steering wheel.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 pallet 4 getting on and off 7 handrail 8 handle 9 rotating part 10 overhang part 11 pallet group 12 seating warning display 13 torsion spring 14, 15, 16 link 17 pinion 18 rack 19 guide 20 roller 21 guide rail 22, 23 fulcrum 24 Shaft 25 Rotating part 26 Handrail storage part 27a, 27b Detection sensor

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A moving walkway configured to carry passengers by a plurality of pallets having a handrail attached to a side end thereof, a handle rotatably attached to the handrail, and the handle. And a control mechanism for controlling the rotation angle of the pallet so as to be in an open state in which passengers can walk between adjacent pallets and a closed state for preventing walking. 2. The moving sidewalk according to claim 1, wherein a part or all of the handle is elastically supported by a flexible means, and the handle is manually opened and closed even when the handle is in the closed state. A moving sidewalk characterized by a structure that can be used. 3. The moving sidewalk according to claim 1, further comprising display means or audio warning means for preventing a passenger from sitting or leaning on the handle. 4. The moving sidewalk according to claim 1, wherein a handrail stored in a handrail storage means provided near the landing is monitored, and a handle attached to the handrail is used as the handrail storage means. Detecting means for detecting whether the vehicle is in a first storage-impossible state in which the vehicle cannot be stored in the vehicle or in a second storage-impossible state in which the passenger holds the steering wheel; A moving sidewalk provided with emergency stop control means for controlling so as to stop running of the pallet when at least one of the storage incapable states is detected. 5. A moving walkway according to claim 1, wherein each of said pallets is a predetermined first distance from a landing.
The vehicle travels at a speed, is accelerated from an acceleration start point, reaches a second speed higher than the first speed at an acceleration end point, is further decelerated from a deceleration start point, and reaches the first speed at a deceleration end point. When the pallet is controlled to run at the landing, the control mechanism opens the handle of the pallet at the landing, and rotates the handle to the closed state before the pallet reaches the acceleration start point. Start the action to make
The moving sidewalk further controls to complete the operation of rotating the handle to the open state after reaching the deceleration end point.