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The elevator compensation chain is a safety protection device. It is used to connect the car with the counterweight, balance the weight of the traction sheave and the traveling cable, and play a balancing role in the operation of the elevator.
What Is the Function of the Elevator Compensation Chain?
When the elevator is in operation, the length of the wire ropes of the car and the counterweight is constantly changing, leading to weight imbalance between the two sides.
For example, when the car is at the lowest floor, most of the weight of the wire rope is on the car; when the car is at the top floor, most of the weight of the wire rope is shifts to the counterweight.
This imbalance becomes more serious as the elevator’s travel height increases, and will affect the stability of the elevator’s operation and passenger safety.
For this reason, when the elevator’s lifting height exceeds a certain threshold – generally 30m, based on the actual engineering experience, a certain weight of components must be set to balance the weight change, which is the role of the elevator compensation chain.
Types of Elevator Compensation Chain
Rope Compensation Chain
It can only be used for elevators with speeds ≤ 1.75m/s. The rope compensation chain is one of the earliest types of elevator compensation systems, its structure is to put hemp rope in the iron chain. Although this kind of compensation chain is cheap, but due to the larger noise of friction and collision between the chain, the passengers in the car can feel obvious shaking feeling, For these reasons, it now rarely used in modern elevator systems.
Plastic-Wrapped Compensation Chain
It is typically used for elevators with low loads and low speeds below 2m/s. Plastic-covered compensation chain is to remove the rope of rope-covered compensation chain and replace it with a layer of PVC hose. Compared with the rope compensation chain, the noise of plastic-covered compensation chain is greatly reduced, and the appearance is better. However, the flexibility and durability still need to be improved.
Full Plastic Compensation Chain
The full plastic compensation chain can be used in any medium and high speed elevator with speed within 6m/s. The appearance is PVC structure, which has the advantages of wear-resisting, anti-aging, no noise, long life, etc. It has strong adaptability to different environments, and it is the most widely used compensating chain in modern elevator systems.
Elevator Compensation Chain Installation Guide
Plastic-Covered Compensation Chain Installation
The plastic-covered compensation chain have simpler structures and are mostly used in low travel height and low-speed elevators. so the installation is also simpler, the two ends of the compensation chain are connected to the bottom frame of the car and the counterweight with the suspension device, and then a guide device consisting of two PVC wheels is set under the counterweight in the pit.
Full Plastic Compensation Chain Installation
As for the all-plastic compensation chain, because it is mostly used in high travel and high-speed elevator, the installation method is a bit more complicated, and each end of the compensation chain is connected to the bottom frame of the car and the counterweight with a suspension device. There is a guide device in the pit, which is installed about 1m above the pit of the bending radius of the compensation chain. There are two guides under each compensation chain, one mounted under the car through a bracket and the other under the counterweight through a bracket.
Notice:
1. The temperature range is -20℃~60℃.
2. Straighten the chain first, or it will affect the running and service life.
3. The center line of the guiding device should be kept in the same vertical line with the hanging point, to prevent any accidental breakdown caused by the friction between the compensation chain and the guiding device.
4. The minimum distance is 1m between the installation point of the damping device and the curved bottom of the compensation chain.
Elevator Compensation Chain Calculation
The elevator compensation chain needs to be calculated in terms of length and weight.
Length: The calculation of the length needs to take into account factors such as the elevator speed, the load, shaft height, car weight and counterweight weight.
For example, for a 26-story building, the height of each floor is about 3 m, while the total height of the elevator shaft is about 78 m.
Since the compensation chain will expand and contract with the up and down movement of the elevator car when the elevator is running, the length of the compensation chain must be greater than the shaft height, which is generally 1 to 1.5 times of the elevator shaft height.
Therefore, for an elevator with a shaft height of 78 m, the length of the compensation chain should be between 78 m and 117 m. This range takes into account the extreme conditions of the elevator. This range takes into account the chain extension of the elevator under extreme conditions (e.g. full load up or empty load down).
Weight: The weight of the compensating chain is calculated by subtracting the weight of the traction rope from the weight of the traveling cable.
Then determine the compensation chain weight per meter, it allows a certain error. In the error range can be two choices: Choose a lighter weight per meter of 2 compensation chain, or choose a heavier weight per meter of 1 compensation chain.
This is mainly to consider the arrangement of the buffer in the elevator system, for example, car and counterweight below each set a buffer, or car with 2, counterweight with a, then the use of 2 compensation chain is more appropriate. If the car and counterweight below each with 2 buffer, then it should be used 1 compensation chain.
For exact values, you can contact Da’zen engineer to calculate for you.
FAQs
1. Under what circumstances should a compensation chain be set?
When determining whether to install compensation chain, the fixed lifting height should not be taken as a simple criterion, but should be calculated according to the specific traction conditions of each elevator, so as to ensure that the wire rope does not slip under car loading and emergency braking conditions. Although engineering experience shows that a lifting height of more than 30 meters usually requires the installation of a compensation chain, due to the differences in elevator types, loads and operating environments, the empirical value is for reference only, and the actual system safety should be the primary consideration.
2. How to Recognize the Quality of the Elevator Compensation Chain?
A good quality compensation chain needs to be tested by running through the elevator as a whole, which can be judged from the following aspects:
- the appearance of the compensation chain should be smooth and neat, without air holes, bulging, cracks, lack of material
- It needs to pass various tests, such as actual breaking load test, temperature and humidity aging test, salt spray test and so on.
You can ask the supplier to provide the corresponding report.