Fail-safe movement of elevator cabs between car frames and landings

摘要

A first slidable auxiliary pinion (58a) on the bottom of a horizontally moveable elevator cab A disposed on a car frame (14) or a landing is moved out from under the cab toward another car frame (13) or landing by means of a motorized pinion (56) until it engages a motorized pinion (57) on the adjacent car frame (13) or landing, which then pulls the auxiliary pinion and the entire cab toward the other car frame or landing until a main rack (45) fixed to the bottom of the cab engages a motorized pinion (34) on the other car frame (13) or landing, which pinion then pulls the entire cab onto the other car frame or landing. The auxiliary racks (58a, 58b) may be mounted on a common auxiliary rack member (58), or may be separate. The auxiliary motorized pinions (55, 56, 57) may be bidirectional, or may be unidirectional and mounted on the same shaft with main pinions (32a, 32c; 33a, 33c; 34a, 34c). <IMAGE>